Sonic falls again

[Kolyarut]

If you're seriously trusting critic reviews of a Sonic game, then you really need to get yourself a reality check. Unleashed had mediocre reviews at best, and yet I found it to be almost entirely enjoyable, even the night stages.

One point that keeps coming up in Sonic reviews is poor controls. I wonder if, since they don't really fit into a standard genre (they're at least as much a racing game as they are a platform game) and as such have their own control scheme, a typical reviewer is just not going to be very good at it unless they are a fan of the series? Like fighting games, MOBAs or RTSes, Sonic games are pretty dire when you're not good at them, since they're just an exercise in smashing your face against walls and enemies, and if you're not willing to sink the time into developing the skills - which are going to be more or less useless to you in other games - then you won't have fun.

 

[saintdane05]

Oh no. The game got a reception that wasn't it sucking the game's dick sleeve. THE SONIC FRANCHISE IS DOOMED FOREVER!!!!!11!!!

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

I think it depends on who you talk to. I've read stuff both positive and negative on this game, but from what I've read, it actually sounds like something I'd be interested in picking up, if I had a Wii U. Sure, it has its low points - as all contemporary Sonic titles have - but the highs actually sound like they'd make for a really interesting experience. As I said, though, that would be dependent on me owning a Wii U, which I do not, so this is another Sonic game I won't be playing.

I haven't actually played a Sonic game since Sonic 3, now that I think about it. Oh, my.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

This is official, everyone! Sonic is now one of the most bastardized franchises of all time!

Hell, I even wrote an entire thread describing how Sega should just pull Sonic out of Super Smash Bros. 4, just to avoid advertising the ever-awful Sonic Lost World. That's how bad Sonic Lost World is!

That's... not indicative of the game's quality at all. Have you even played it?

As far as reviews go, it has a number of positive reviews, a couple of bad ones and a lot of mixed ones. That's not bad at all, really.

 

[Chaud]

The truth is that Sonic has long turned into a niche game.

Just as we shouldn't be expecting the mainstream press to judge properly the merits of an turn-based, squad-based, strategic and with heavy focus on character building RPG, it isn't ideal to expect or even want their approval here, too.

Sonic 06 was really a disaster, this is true. Shadow's game wasn't one of the best ideas either. But Sonic Heroes, Unleashed, Colors (besides the many portable games) were fun games for many people. (Really, a lot of people still buy and like those games.) In fact, I would even say that if the game has the general approval of the press there's a chance it would end up alienating part of the core public.

(Sonic Generations ended up being an exception to this, however.)

But the truth is that many of the criticisms that I see in the press in general are, in some cases, just what makes me like the Sonic games. There is a (fairly large) public who like that kind of gameplay, strange as it may sound to the ears of many people. The issue is that it's clear that this view about modern Sonic's gameplay is not shared by most players.

And that is okay! This is normal. At this point, those who like the Sonic games (especially in portable video games) will continue to enjoy it, and who doesn't will continue to criticize it.

 

[FourCartridge]

It is getting Average to Above Average scores. Still a good game. It hasn't gotten shit upon either.

What is the world coming to when a decent game review number of "65-70" is "Shit"?

Sonic is a pretty easy target for game journalists; never letting him live 06 down you see. =P Course, I've learned to just ignore them when it comes to the hedgehog, however I wonder how long his critic-proof shield will last.

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

It is getting Average to Above Average scores. Still a good game. It hasn't gotten shit upon either.

What is the world coming to when a decent game review number of "65-70" is "Shit"?

Welcome to the world of the "three/thirty-point rating system". Where the only scores that matter are 70+ ones... except 70-80 is now becoming mediocre too. So nowadays it's apparently only the "two/twenty-point rating system". And this totally is acceptable because, hey, apparently that's how grades in American schools function so we should totally apply it to video games too, right?

[small]And yes, that is massive sarcasm.[/small]

Anywho, I'm with the "every one of these reviews seems to be based on what the reviewer thinks Sonic 'should' be instead of rating the game on its own merits, so I'm not going to trust them and play it for myself" camp on this one. Sonic games really aren't something I trust reviewers on anyway, since none of them seem capable of forgetting the atrocity that was Sonic 06' and just feel more inclined to crap all over the franchise because of it than just try to play the games and review them for what they are. I mean, reviewers shat all over Sonic Unleashed yet that was genuinely a pretty great game. And yet some reviewers acted like it was worse than Sonic 06'... yeah. You really can't trust anyone who tries to claim Unleashed was worse than 06'.

But yeah, I'll try it for myself and judge it myself instead of listening to these folks. Hell, I'll probably enjoy it anyway, being a Sonic fan and all...

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I want to see the Sonic game where he's a bitter drunk reminiscing about the good old days while everyone else has moved on with their lives. Maybe Tails has a 9-5 desk job and a family, while Knuckles opened his own boxing ring. Then, like, every couple of weeks he'll come over and share a few beers with Tails, or have long conversations with Knuckles at midnight in the abandoned ring, and wonder what happened. Then, afterwards, he just... walks the streets of Manhattan aimlessly, his collar popped up against the November wind, and reflects on his life beneath the golden street lights. Afterwards he hails a taxi and goes home, ready to do the whole thing again tomorrow.

Maybe, like, the next day he's walking down the road and some kid spots him. "Hey, mommy, isn't that Sonic the Hedgehog?" Sonic smiles.
"Don't look honey, he's just a hasbeen."

Then the game just explores the life of a hero who is well past his prime, and nobody really wants him anymore. Like, he's still alive, but the worlds moved on without him. Then he looks up and sees masterchief saving the world on a giant telescreen while everyone claps. Afterwards he runs into Megaman at the local bar, and they talk for a while.

sounds like it could be an awesome telltell game.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Just watch this video and compare the complaints of the IGN and Gamespot reviews to gameplay of someone who's actually good at the game.


They complain that it's ripping of Mario Galaxy when they give 9/10 to CoD every single year, and they are obviously not good enough to be playing this game in the first place.

 

[Piorn]

Are they still making Sonic Games?
Just reboot it as a generic 3rd person shooter or something, kids won't notice. If we really need to keep the franchise on life support, at least we can minimize the developement costs.

 

[Rin Tezuka]

Everything you said

I full heartedly agree with this post. Because of the "This game isn't what I think it should be" mentality, there's a lot of negatives to the game which just don't make sense.

"Too Slow" is garbage, Sonic is still pretty fast, just not as fast as Generations or Colours. You want to complain about Sonic being too slow, try playing Sonic Labyrinth. Also seems reviewers also forgot that the Spindash is in the game, since it does the same job it's done in every game, getting sonic to top speed, especially in 2D segments.

Worst part of all this is the shit being spewed by every numbnuts that focuses solely on the negative reviews. Crap going about like "It's worse than 06" and "Sonic was never good". Even 06 itself didn't bring this much hatred! I seriously don't how this game is hated this much.

I'll bet you a million dollars by next year people will look back and say how hard done to this game was and how it wasn't as bad as it was claimed, along with the game's actual flaws being addressed. Same thing happened to Unleashed and many a other title.

To sum it up, Lost World is going to be Sonic's Mario Sunshine.

 

[Roxas1359]

Just watch this video and compare the complaints of the IGN and Gamespot reviews to gameplay of someone who's actually good at the game.


They complain that it's ripping of Mario Galaxy when they give 9/10 to CoD every single year, and they are obviously not good enough to be playing this game in the first place.

I love that so much. Seriously I hope that someone sends that video over to the people at IGN and at GameSpot to show them how full of themselves they are.
I mean I know Lost World isn't perfect, but it's not the awful thing that they think it is.

Hell, I still remember this GameSpot review that had me go "really?" to them:

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

What is the world coming to when a decent game review number of "65-70" is "Shit"?

Well, people lose their shit when a great game gets "only" an 8 on ten. It's a well known fact that game scores and the reception thereof are kinda screwed up.

I think Jim did an episode talking about just that.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Just watch this video and compare the complaints of the IGN and Gamespot reviews to gameplay of someone who's actually good at the game.


They complain that it's ripping of Mario Galaxy when they give 9/10 to CoD every single year, and they are obviously not good enough to be playing this game in the first place.

Huh.

So basically it follows the Riders Zero Gravity formula?

ie, really fun and awesome once you adapt to the controls and playstyle and can break the game with ridiculous use of the tools at your disposal, but an absolute chore to play if you don't put in the time to learn how it plays.

I can live with that. Sadly, I don't have a Wiiu. Maybe I'll pick up the game and just hold onto it until I get myself a Wiiu (probably going to get one when Smash 4 comes out).

Also, it has to be said, that guy plays WELL. 0_0 I love the IGN guy in the background going "I had to use the double jump to overcome even the SMALLEST leaps", while the guy in the video launches himself across a frankly insane jump that had me going "no WAY he can make that. ...OMG he made that?! 0_0".

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

You know, just for lols, I replayed a level or two of every 3D sonic game (minus heroes because I don't own it, and for the record I didn't like it, and 06 because I don't own it and !@#$ 06), and I'm kinda amused by the results.

I noticed a marked increase in quality of the gameplay with each successive game. which I find amusing due to the sonic fandom's tendency to go "EACH NEW GAME WAS WORSE! SA2 DA BEST!"

Seriously! SA1 was all loose and the level design was kinda...meh. The wind valley which I thought was one of the better levels had actually very little input required to beat. And the volcano level had some serious issues too.

SA2 felt tighter...but was still really clunky. Radical highway felt like a lot of sudden stops kept coming up, and Metal harbor was better, but still really clunky.

Shadow the Hedgehog was much smoother than SA2, but brought its own issues to the table (overemphasis on combat). Yeah, sure, the internet levels were kinda inventive, and Sky Troops was fun, but I didn't enjoy having to stop and clean up enemies from time to time in order to progress (although at least the guns make that a breeze most of the time). ...I'm actually feeling a bit nostalgic for that game now...

Unleashed (wii)...Wow. Big step up. I replayed most of the levels (not saying much, since there's like...6?). My biggest gripes with these were the fact that the boost is segmented, preventing you from just...ya know, boosting ahead. That and how you need to chain actions and stuff to fill it up. The levels were fine. A bit too race-coursey with littel exploraition., but overall still fun to play. I think the only reason it's so reviled is because it (the wii version anyway) was something like 70% werehog.

Sonic Colors felt like a HUGE step up. Aquatic park 1 and Asterioid coaster 1 both felt like there was a lot to do, while also preserving the !@#$ out of forward momentum. The only real problems I felt were the inability to drift and sidestep, and the overabundance of little gimmicks.

Generations was...Yeah, it was awesome. I played Chemical park and the Heroes level and I wanted to keep going and play the rest of the levels.

So...Given that Sonic has a track record of IMPROVING, minus the hiccup that was 06, I think that I'm ok to have faith in Lost world not sucking as bad as the critics are saying.

At least until the freakin demo hits in NA and I can try for myself. Seriously, why do we not have the demo yet?!

 

[Saltyk]

I really don't get the whole "Sonic Lost World is a failure" thing. Is everyone just reading Escapist's and Edge's reviews? Reviews for the game are all over the shop, from bad to average to good to great. Hell, Nintendo World Report gave it a 9 and Famitsu gave it 36/40. Even our very own Jim gave it a 7.5

Overall, I'd say it comes down to making up your own mind. Granted it's no Generations, but with reviews like this, you'd be crazy to base your judgement solely on them. Even worse when people are focusing on the negative reviews as always.

B-But don't you know? 7.5 is utter shit. Everyone knows that any game that gets below a 9.998 is utter garbage. And if your own game gets a "low score" you need to ***** and moan about the dumb and stupid reviewers with their heads firmly up their posteriors.

I want to see the Sonic game where he's a bitter drunk reminiscing about the good old days while everyone else has moved on with their lives. Maybe Tails has a 9-5 desk job and a family, while Knuckles opened his own boxing ring. Then, like, every couple of weeks he'll come over and share a few beers with Tails, or have long conversations with Knuckles at midnight in the abandoned ring, and wonder what happened. Then, afterwards, he just... walks the streets of Manhattan aimlessly, his collar popped up against the November wind, and reflects on his life beneath the golden street lights. Afterwards he hails a taxi and goes home, ready to do the whole thing again tomorrow.

Maybe, like, the next day he's walking down the road and some kid spots him. "Hey, mommy, isn't that Sonic the Hedgehog?" Sonic smiles.
"Don't look honey, he's just a hasbeen."

Then the game just explores the life of a hero who is well past his prime, and nobody really wants him anymore. Like, he's still alive, but the worlds moved on without him. Then he looks up and sees masterchief saving the world on a giant telescreen while everyone claps. Afterwards he runs into Megaman at the local bar, and they talk for a while.

Have you seen Sonic For Hire?