What makes a Sonic Game?

[Spud]

I think we've discussed this before. What makes a Sonic game good?
I'm not going to give you categories or a poll so just speak your mind.

[TV Eye]

A good Sonic game is one with high amounts of speed, and low amounts of stopping to see where you are going. I never had the opportunity to play any of the crappy Sonic games (which I am glad) so I don't know what made them bad. Though I heard there was a high amount of exploration...

[kirbychu]

That's something the entire Sonic fanbase is divided on. You've got the fans who want the series darker and more violent, then the ones who want it happier and more colourful. The ones who want deeper stories, and the ones who don't want a story. The ones who only want Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Eggman, and the ones who want Shadow, Silver and Blaze.

In other words, this topic = bad idea.

[Spud]

I think everyone on this forum is perfectly capable of behaving themselfs and not flaming. And mind you you can have a game that dips between light and dark. Not having a story is rather difficult in an epic 3D game, but perfectly plausible in a good 2D game.

What I didn't ask was What makes a Sonic Game a Sonic Game.
Sure DK Jungle beat doesn't have a lot to do with it's series but it's still a good game.

So this topic isn't necessarily a bad Idea.

[kirbychu]

You obviously didn't see the old Secret Rings topic.

A balance between light and dark isn't enough... Sonic fans tend to be pretty... extremeist. It has to be waaay too far one way or waaaaaaaaay too far the other. It's the reason I try to keep away from Sonic fans as much as possible. They're nuts.

But hell, I'm probably just as nuts as the rest of the fanbase.

[TV Eye]

I remember seeing a very educational topic on the SEGA forum. I'll see if I can find it. It's a bunch of mature Sonic fans giving off page long posts about what makes all the recent Sonic games bad.

Here it is

[Smashchu]

kirbychu said:

You obviously didn't see the old Secret Rings topic.

That waas mostly my fault. What can I say. With this and Smash I get pretty crazy.

What makes a Sonic game good? Two words 2D (is that two words?). I have yet to play a bad 2D Sonic game. Even the newer ones were still good. 3D ones, not so much.

If Sega wants to do a good 3D Sonic game, use the Secret Rings gameplay, and make it better. Make the controls tighter, give you a little more hazards, no missions (we need acts). My idea for a 3DF Sonic game was just put Sonic, Tails and Knuckles (and maybe one female character) and put them in 10 zones. Make it fast. Make it fun. Maybe no save files to make ity interesting

[TV Eye]

As far as 3d Sonic games go, Sonic Adventure was amazing! Adventure 2 was good too, but it was harder (which isn't bad).

[kirbychu]

And here's another example of the divide between fans...

I hated Secret Rings. Concept was good, story was good, but I've never been more frustrated with a game in my life. Why do I have to HOLD DOWN 2 and release to jump? Why can't I just jump? Why do I have to thrust the controller forward to homing attack? I usually have to do it several times before it works. Why, when I try to switch grind rails, does Sonic always go the opposite direction to the way I want?

Give me Sonic 2006 any day. At least every time I died in that it was my own fault.

[TV Eye]

I never played Secret Rings, mostly because I wanted to control where Sonic went and not to automatically go forward. I also don't like Sonic as the only character. I prefer a lot of chars.

[Spud]

smashchu2 said:

kirbychu said:

You obviously didn't see the old Secret Rings topic.

That waas mostly my fault. What can I say. With this and Smash I get pretty crazy.

What makes a Sonic game good? Two words 2D (is that two words?). I have yet to play a bad 2D Sonic game. Even the newer ones were still good. 3D ones, not so much.

If Sega wants to do a good 3D Sonic game, use the Secret Rings gameplay, and make it better. Make the controls tighter, give you a little more hazards, no missions (we need acts). My idea for a 3DF Sonic game was just put Sonic, Tails and Knuckles (and maybe one female character) and put them in 10 zones. Make it
fast. Make it fun. Maybe no save files to make ity interesting

What about a 2D/3D Hybrid like Kirby64?

[Flip]

The issue with recent Sonic games is that rather than recycling good ideas from past games and creating new ones to go along with them, they will recycle everything from past games including the good and bad and give it a new storyline with newer, more extreme characters. The series has become convoluted, imo.

But the old Sonic games had the same appeal that old Mario and old Mega Man had. They were easy to pick up and play, there was friendly competition between players, and anybody could beat it in a day. It didn't take an Einstein to make sense of the plot, and it didn't take a dedicated fanatic to have the willpower and patience to play through all the way. It was what it was.

And there is a 2D/3D Sonic game... Sonic Rivals for the PSP. It's kinda lametastic, but what do I know?

[kirbychu]

fliptroopa said:

And there is a 2D/3D Sonic game... Sonic Rivals for the PSP.

And Sonic Rush. And the upcoming Sonic Rush Adventure. And Sonic Rivals 2.

[TV Eye]

kirbychu said:

fliptroopa said:

And there is a 2D/3D Sonic game... Sonic Rivals for the PSP.

And Sonic Rush. And the upcoming Sonic Rush Adventure. And Sonic Rivals 2.

Yes, Rush was amazing. But Rivals...not so much. I only played Rivals once and I found it pretty boring. It was nothing that made a Sonic game good. Rush on the other hand, you still had Eggman as the main villain (just like old Sonic games), there were only two characters to play as (just like the old Sonic games), and the bonus round round on a halfpipe (just like the old Sonic 2).

[kirbychu]

You'll like Rush Adventure, if you like Eggman being the main villain. According to the track order of the official soundtrack Captain Whisker is the main villain right up until the very end, where Eggman is revealed to be the real villain. Sounds awesome to me!