Where Sega messed up with Sonic

[Sonicwolf]

Since they changed the official Sonic design from the cute and cool one found on Genesis games...



...to the "I'M SO RAD AND X-TREME!!" on SA and beyond...



...things went downhill. You can't imagine how I hate that stupíd grin on his face.

Not to mention that he now looks like a contortionist.

[Overbite]

These games are total shit but they sell to the people who are super crazy about sonic the character and not sonic the game.

These are the people who post on Sonic fansites and draw Sonic porn and watch the sonic cartoons and cosplay as sonic and all his stupid friends.

As long as these people are still crazy Sega will keep making crappy Sonic games.

[Ed Oscuro]

Haha, I love Sonic porn.

Anyway, a month back I saw the opening to Sonic Adventure, dumbest thing I saw in a while.

Frankly the series has never been all that amazing. I remember playing one of the Genesis titles years ago at the house across the street (96 or earlier) and eh well so what he's got an idle animation.

[DonMarco]

I think it was Sonic Adventure I gave up on the series. Robotnik became Eggman (his Japanese name, stupid as it is). Would you take anyone that called themselves "Egg Man" seriously?

I will stick my neck out for Shadow the Hedgehog, though. It gets better with every play through, branching levels (think Guardian Heroes or Outrun), excellent music, great levels... Hands down the best Sonic game in ages. Especially compared to the 2006 Sonic and Unleashed. I haven't played any of the handheld games, but will keep an eye out. I got this big camping trip coming up and a few extra games wouldn't hurt.

Seriously though, Shadow doesn't deserve all the hate it gets.

[Sonicwolf]

Seriously though, Shadow doesn't deserve all the hate it gets.

I dont mind the character show has he resembles the rivalry that knuckles once did in the Genesis years. If they kept it as a racing rivalry instead of a twisted bloated plot fail of a game then things would work out for the better.

[grolt]

Yeah, I could care less about the story. It's always been child's play. The fact that there is always too much of it in these later games is the thing that bothers me. I just want to pick up the controller and rip through levels at top speed, just like the old days. That's why I still love SONIC R - no frills, just start running. They haven't got it right since, although I can't remember another time I was more in awe with a game than all those loops on Windy City in SONIC ADVENTURE. Too bad I had to spend so much time helping Big the Cat find his frog.

[Nature Boy]

Count me amongst those who think that the overarching storyline has little to nothing to do with Sonic's decline in popularity.

Nintendo took Mario into the 3D world of gaming by creating Super Mario 64. Sega tried the same with Sonic Adventure. One worked really well IMO (SM64) - one not so much (SA). That's where Sonic started suffering in my eyes.

[otaku]

they messed up when they went 3D (and they've gone overboard with all the new characters and for that matter with messing with sonic like in the new unleashed)

[obesolete]

Since they changed the official Sonic design from the cute and cool one found on Genesis games...

Getting a little off topic have you seen the new sonic figures... or rather OLD sonic figures?

If i weren't such a broke-ass trick, they'd be in my game room right now.

[HYB]

Getting a little off topic have you seen the new sonic figures... or rather OLD sonic figures?

If i weren't such a broke-ass trick, they'd be in my game room right now.

I've been wanting those figures ever since they first showed pics of them. Too bad I'm broke as well.

As a side note, I love the plushies you have on etsy. Been wanting to buy the Mr. Saturn one for ages.

[Famidrive-16]

I don't think it's the first US game to use the Eggman name, but it was funny in SA1 when he basically says "My name is Dr. Robotnik" and Sonic says "Ha ha you look like an Egg Man" and that's what he nicknames him for the rest of the game.

Made more sense than Mario 64 dropping the Peach bomb all of a sudden.

[bucky]

Who cares about canonical contradictions and inconsistencies? Even if everything meshed up perfectly, it was still a bad idea in the first place to waste any significant amount of time, effort and money into developing it that much.

Sega took a character and game series who's main advantage was the aspect of quick, pick-up-and-play action, and get-up-and-go speed, and then proceeded to bog it down with layer upon layer of story, canon, fifth-wheel furry friends, and a bunch of other stupid shit nobody gives a damn about.

Instead of trying to adapt to newer platforms while still trying to hold above all else what the original Sonic games had going for them, they got caught up in trying to mutate it into some sort of traditional, story-based canonical franchise, and failed horribly. They played exactly against the strength of the original games, and that's where they messed up.

My sentiments exactly.

[SegaAges]

Sonic 06 was good. I gave you an awesome sense of being Sonic.

Honestly, as games and franchises evolve, you would have to be out of your mind to even think that every single franchise is going to pull a mega man 9.

Sonic has grown along with the gaming industry, as with many other franchises that I can leave nameless (unless somebody else brings it up).

They are different. You can go buy Sonic 2 for 0.25 anywhere, so if that is all you want, go get a genny and sonic 2 for a total of $5.

While you are at it, never play an evolving franchise. That includes... <I said I would be quiet here, but I can always edit my post>

You say Sonic is sucking more.
Tell me, what makes the newer games so bad?
Sonic 06?
Sonic Unleashed?
Explain yourselves.

Sonic 06: I hear bad camera angles all the time. That is about all I hear. Yes, they included more characters, but if you look at the track record, they decided to go with more hedgehogs. Why not? Ok, I will not hold out. Waluigi, Wario within Mario games. There you go. They added more plumbers, so why can;t Sega add more hedgehogs?

One thing I learned in Sonic 06 is that if the camera angle messes up, you went the wrong way! You tried to do something not intended in the game, and the camera is trying to get you back on track.

I only had 1 issue with the camera out of the entire time I played the game, and that is because I made a shortcut with Silver to go around a building instead of going through the building, so the camera literally got stuck inside the building. That is it.

If your camera angles are so bad that you can't even play the game. Seriously, take the game back and exchange it for a new one, because you got a copy of the game that is totally messed up. I only had 1 instance, which I mentioned, out of playing the games, and then going back and replaying the levels, where this happened. One time. Once. That is it.

Sonic Unleashed: Badass game. Seriously, the game is fun. It mixes it up alot. The night levels are a clone of God of War, but isn't God of War just a clone of Die Hard Arcade? Funny how that works out.

The day levels are good, provide multiple paths (if you don't see another path open, then wow, are you sure you are playing the same game as me).

They messed up on some side characters, but if you noticed that after SA, they have been tacking down to specific side characters. Big the cat was no longer a side character either.

What about Sonic Heroes? I didn't play far in the game because it is challenging, but I did enjoy the game. Why is that game left out?

And why the hell can't Sonic have a story?
Fuck man, they give a buttload of characters stories who didn't used to back in the day. In the end, it is still the same story as Sonic 1 and 2. Eggman is trying to take over the world. Stop him. Shit will happen along the way. Somebody may get kidnapped, or whatever, but I do remember another iconical character where he had to defeat an evil boss after somebody was kidnapped as well.

Sonic is not messed up, just different than how he was in Sonic 1 and 2. Fuck man, shall I go into other franchises that the anti-sega people cherish that have changed over the years?

How about a badass game that was a 2-D platformer that turned into, well pretty much, a FPS? I can name it if you can't think of it. That one had a story that was changed.

Seriously, just because it is not a 2-d sidescrolling, fast-paced platformer does not make it a bad game.

I can go further in dept if you like. In fact, reply to what I put to let me know why I am wrong, and then allow me to retort. Until then, there is no reason to just randomly fucking hate. These threads pop up way too much. Yes, I know this is mainly a retro forum, but seriously, it is not as bad as you make it to be.

You claim Sonic is ruined and that Sonic needs to die. I beg to differ, and I can easily retort to inform you why.

[Diosoth]

Fact is, Sega doesn't care if it makes sense.

Knuckles. A semi-important character that could have been abandoned, but they kep adding in all this personal history of the echidnas as some sort of warlike tribe and such that were important. Sonic Chronicles added a 2nd tribe which had technology?

Why?

Knuckles isn't the title character. Why does he get all the history when Sonic gets nothing? Knuckles is a borderline unlikeable character that hasn't done anyting remotely relevant since SA2. His mission in SA ended with an awful rap tune written by someone who didn't play the games, and they got the same guy back to do all of the Knuckles stage music for SA2, and it was all awful. Knuckles has also been written as dumber over time, and so what if he's supposed to guard the Master Emerald? He does nothing but follow Sonic around!

And another annoying franchise habit... the "almost but don't count on it romance". They'll have some female character flirt with guys, even if the guy is so visibly disgusted with the girl's presence that they can't hide it. Typical of Sonic and Amy, though pushed to limits with Rouge and Knuckles, often with Knuckles threatening physical violence over it. And why is Rouge flirting with underage kids anyway? There's a lengthy bit in Sonic Battle where she hits on Tails. In a borderline sexual manner. He's 8 years old.

Sega needs to stop that! If they oppose romance in the series that bad then they need to exclude it completely.

The sheer number of characters woudn't be a problem if only they'd write everyone better.

[Famidrive-16]

ghostface did the pumpkin hill song I SWEAR HE DID

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYCNQVIA-xg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxb9kvJpE4w

edit: oh yeah i know why sonic 06 sucked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBkhh7n017o

[Wraith Storm]

edit: oh yeah i know why sonic 06 sucked
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBkhh7n017o

You can take anything and exploit a flaw to make it look 100 times worse...

Those are all the in-town missions that are usually very quick to complete. You talk to the guy, accept the mission, play the mission, the guy talks to you again, and then it goes back to the town. Sure, so it loads between each step... Big deal.

So someone decides to run through them all back to back and film it and suddenly Sonic 06 is HORRIBLE because it has ridiculous load times.

Now I'm not saying it has no load time because it certainly does. They do seem a little frequent and a bit lengthy, but i'm okay with it because the "GAME" is still pretty damn good.

Hell, I used to play Sim City 2000 on the Saturn all the time and it took like 5 minutes to load. But that didn't make the "GAME" suck. The "GAME" was a freaking blast to play and if someone hadn't stolen it I would probably still play it to this day.

The Sonic games are still solid. Maybe not a great as they used to be but they are FAAAAAARRRRR from the shit-fest people make them out to be. No thanks to guys like this youtube individual.

[SegaAges]

Fact is, Sega doesn't care if it makes sense.

Knuckles. A semi-important character that could have been abandoned, but they kep adding in all this personal history of the echidnas as some sort of warlike tribe and such that were important. Sonic Chronicles added a 2nd tribe which had technology?

Why?

Knuckles isn't the title character. Why does he get all the history when Sonic gets nothing? Knuckles is a borderline unlikeable character that hasn't done anyting remotely relevant since SA2. His mission in SA ended with an awful rap tune written by someone who didn't play the games, and they got the same guy back to do all of the Knuckles stage music for SA2, and it was all awful. Knuckles has also been written as dumber over time, and so what if he's supposed to guard the Master Emerald? He does nothing but follow Sonic around!

And another annoying franchise habit... the "almost but don't count on it romance". They'll have some female character flirt with guys, even if the guy is so visibly disgusted with the girl's presence that they can't hide it. Typical of Sonic and Amy, though pushed to limits with Rouge and Knuckles, often with Knuckles threatening physical violence over it. And why is Rouge flirting with underage kids anyway? There's a lengthy bit in Sonic Battle where she hits on Tails. In a borderline sexual manner. He's 8 years old.

Sega needs to stop that! If they oppose romance in the series that bad then they need to exclude it completely.

The sheer number of characters woudn't be a problem if only they'd write everyone better.

Sonic, just like many big franchises, has more than just video games. There is plenty of backstory on Sonic.

The almost romance is a gaming cliche at this point, as it happens all the time.
Hey, many of you have said it yourselves with many classics: don't mess with a formula that works. In this case, it is the romance cliche.

[Gentlegamer]

Was was the OP banned?

[PingvinBlueJeans]

Was was the OP banned?

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132108

Openly supporting game piracy, being a dick, etc.

[Swamperon]

My god, I despair over how confusion still exsists over Eggman/Robotnik naming "controversy", of all places, this is one I'd expect to get it right.

It's really simple. Pre - SA1, the fat evil professor was called Eggman in Japan, Robotnik elsewhere. Upon the release of SA1, ST decided to merge the two. Robotnik became his proper birth name and Eggman was his evil moniker (think Madonna, who was obviosly not born Madonna but has adopted it as her stage name.)

Evidence for this abounds in the games and manuals. The very fact that Robotnik's relations Maria and Gerald have Robotnik as their surname proves this. Both names appear in SA2 behind him when he tells the world to "lend me your ears..."

Neither name is "better" than the other, he uses both interchangably. Much like how many of you have usernames on digitpress that other users know you by but in the real world people call you mike/dave/lucy etc.