10 things that need to change about Sonic

I actually found something really intresting an article about 10 things that need to change about Sonic. It is very intresting I think and I just thought it should be disscussed anyway here's the website.

http://www.411mania.com/games/columns/76222

I found this on GoNintendo.com. It lists 10 things that need to change in the Sonic franchise.

Those are some good points. Some were lame points, like the one about the character personalities. Who really cares if you could categorize the characters? If he likes stories, he should re-read the comics, not play the games. (not even the older ones)

I liked one point he made. Sonic gameplay (no matter the character) is a must for a Sonic game. No mechs, hunting, fishing crap. Sonic Heroes was fine since youhad your speed character at will, and the others just served as alternate moves which were fun to use when you needed to. I'd rather repeat stages with lots of changes over too few stages like in SA1/2. Lastly, why does he have to b**** about the enemies since most can be destroyed quickly enough to not break up the flow? I like the fact that they aren't just useless pushovers in Heroes. In Shadow, it waas bad because the homing attack felt awkward and wouldn't always let you kill the enemy if you jam the buttons over and over. (you'd lose the enemy, which is messed up)

I'm going to ad a few of my own.

Use controls responsibly. When I push forward on the control stick, I expect Sonic to move forward. When I let go of the analog stick, I expect Sonic to stop, not continue running for another mile and careen off a cliff. Why can't Sega get this through their fat heads. Some say Sonic is too fast to control easily and yet he moved as smooth as silk in SSBB. HELLO?

Stop Ripping off Dragonball Z. DBZ is an ok anime and we're all in agreement there (I'm not a fan) but it seems you can't take two steps in a recent Sonic game wiithout tripping over, ridculously over the top enemies, pretentious storylines and Sonic characters resembling DBZ characters complete with big hair and overpowered super moves. Sonic=Goku, Shadow=Vegeta, Silver=Trunks, etc. Sonic 06 went the extra mile and made the Chaos emeralds function like Dragonballs and brought Sonic back to life. Ha Ha Ha! No change there then! Not everyone who plays Sonic games like DBZ and I don't care if Naka was a fan of the show. He's gone now, so let's stop incorporating DBZ elements into Sonic games.

Stop doing front view running sequences. Ever since the whale crashed through the bay in Sonic Adventure, the developers feel the need to put the camera in front of Sonic so we can see the big cool thing chasing him. This screws up the controls and often leads to unfair deaths because YOU CAN'T SEE WHAT'S AHEAD OF YOU. This happened a lot in Heroes.

Let Sonic grab ledges. I don't need to go further on that.

As I said, I remember when Sonic games didn't try to be so serious, when it was fine that Sonic lived in a colorful world of checkered cliffs where Eggman was the only human and the trees and flowers were art deco and we were all fine with this.

Stop doing front view running sequences. Ever since the whale crashed through the bay in Sonic Adventure, the developers feel the need to put the camera in front of Sonic so we can see the big cool thing chasing him. This screws up the controls and often leads to unfair deaths because YOU CAN'T SEE WHAT'S AHEAD OF YOU. This happened a lot in Heroes.kbaily

Don't you remember in Heroes, it usually occured in the second act. In the first level you were outrunning the giant rolling stone wheel thing and it happened again in the jungle level when you were getting away from the giant alligator though that was more jumping and swinging.kbaily

Also, could you please explain how it's a problem since those parts are designed so you don't need to see what's ahead of you?

[QUOTE="kbaily"]Don't you remember in Heroes, it usually occured in the second act. In the first level you were outrunning the giant rolling stone wheel thing and it happened again in the jungle level when you were getting away from the giant alligator though that was more jumping and swinging.DocEggmanNega

Also, could you please explain how it's a problem since those parts are designed so you don't need to see what's ahead of you?

Rings and items are just bonuses for people who know the stage well, or are lucky on their first few times through. It isn't like they placed spike balls and other hazards in front of you (where you couldn't see them) so you could die unfairly. Notice in Secret Rings, the camera moves behind you when you reach the section with the cacti and stuff. If the camera would've stayed in front of you there, that'd become a real problem.

And I don't want to argue either, I just wanted to divide the facts from the opinions when I noticed kbaily getting them mixed up. I understand how some dislike those parts of Sonic games. Personally, I find them exciting if used once in a while.

The biggest problem with playing as Sonic's pals is that most of the time, they aren't that fun to play with. Nobody here is going to say "I enjoyed playing as Big the Cat in Sonic Adventure." My argument has been "if you want me to play as Tails, make a sequel to "Tails Adventures(GG), if you want me to play as Knuckles, make a sequel to "Knuckles Chaotix (32x)." Imagine playing Super Mario Galaxy, playing a few stages as Mario, then having to go back and play through those same levels as another character with slower moves and weaker attacks (see Tails's ring box in Sonic06).

Now the Advance series on the GBA had the right idea, it allowed you to choose who you wanted to play with but didn't force you to play with Amy, Knuckles, etc. This I liked because it encouraged some replayability but didn't force you to play through the same stages again. Why the 3D games don't do this is beyond me.

You mentioned Super Paper Mario, yes, while it let you swap between Mario, Peach, Bowser and Luigi, for the majority of the time you were still Mario because he had the most vital ability and I found myself only using the others when their abilities were needed with the exception of using Bowser to blow through harder enemies. If a Sonic game allowed you to change out characters simultaneously to perform certain tasks, this might be accepted as well. We saw something along those lines in Sonic Heroes which did try to stay true to the old 2D format and I didn't mind the team aspect but then the game made you play through the same game four times when it would've been better to have a longer game where you just played as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.

Now with the upcoming Sonic Chronicles we will play as Sonic's pals, but in that format it works. For JRPGs you always have a party of multiple characters, so in this case, it will work and playing as Sonic's friends won't slow down the gameplay.

If a Sonic game allowed you to change out characters simultaneously to perform certain tasks, this might be accepted as well. We saw something along those lines in Sonic Heroes which did try to stay true to the old 2D format and I didn't mind the team aspect but then the game made you play through the same game four times when it would've been better to have a longer game where you just played as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.kbaily

Possibly the most glaring problem about Sonic Heroes was that horrifically cheap gimmick you mentioned. Why not go the way of SA2 and jump to each team periodically in one or two intertwining storylines? Thankfully, each group in Heroes was unlike the other in many ways, but the differences weren't as pronounced as I would've liked them to be. Team Sonic is your all-around bunch; Team Dark offers a higher difficulty; Team Rose's levels were truncated; and Team Chaotix' "missions" are the most unique, but are also the slowest, and, at times, irritating.

If memory serves me correctly, back in 2006 I caught wind of a Sonic Heroes sequel in the works, and since then, I haven't heard anything else about it. I suppose it's possible that it hasn't been dropped (if the project actually took hold in the first place), and perhaps Sega's reserving it for the 2010 holiday season. It would certainly sell well, but if it would correct the faults in the series is unbeknownst to me, of course. :-P Sonic Unleashed has yet to iron some of the kinks out.

I didn't mind the team aspect but then the game made you play through the same game four times when it would've been better to have a longer game where you just played as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.

kbaily

@kbaily: What if it was like Sonic 2, and they had the same moves and it was optional?

@kbaily: What if it was like Sonic 2, and they had the same moves and it was optional?

Hyper_Hedgehog

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. Do you mean like what they did in the Sonic Advance series?

I think he means that you can choose who you are, but play the game similarly.
@HH: Sonic 2 had both of them play exactly the same, it was Sonic 3 and S&K taht had them have their own special moves, but they each played similarly enough to Sonic for it to fit.

I have suggested it several times, why not have a game like that? Pick one of the three and they go through a Sonic-like stage using their special abilities (Sonic would have the homing attack, Tails would fly, Knux would glide) to help them. The stages could vary a bit like in S&K, but they should be mostly the same.

I think they might, but Idunno where. And they aren't known for listening to fans much. Well, they listened to the Shadow fanboys and girls because they heard what they already wanted to hear anyway. They pretty much make their own decisions.DocEggmanNega

You see before the Dreamcast died, Sega focused more on making quality Sonic games as we saw with many of the main Sonic games up till Sonic Adventure 2. (not counting lousy spinoff games like "Sonic Drift") But Sega was in the red after the Dreamcast flopped and needed to make easy money. They said to themselves "what is our most valuable property?....Sonic!" Thus began a five year process of milking Sonic until his nonexistent teets fell off. Thus is why Sonic X came out. Sega figured the easiest way to make money on games is to give Sonic to the kiddies and thus a new generation of more ignorant Sonic fans emerged. These are the ones who go on about how Shadow and Sonic Next Gen are the greatest games ever. Why? Because these titles appeal to that group. This is the group that loves having tons of playable characters and crap like that. As Dr Eggman Nega said, Shadow was a game solely made for fan service. Sega asked fans which character should have a spinoff and what is should have, and you had a bunch of kids under the age of 12 who had yet to play a "real" shooter like Halo or Gears who said "guns and cars are cool! Let's do that!" This is why you don't let fans dictate your games because fans have sh-- for brains. If Nintendo let fans dictate a Mario game, we'd have Mario spewing off emo lines, and games that made us play through levels as lamer friends such as Daisy and Waluigi or worse have Mario driving around shooting guns at koopa troopas.

But it seems with Secret Rings and Unleashed Sega is finally listening to the old school fans and critic reviews and making the changes that needed to be made.

I've played quite a bit of Halo before Shadow, and then I played Halo 2 and 3, but I still think the whole idea of Shadow the Hedgehog was cool. It's more of a platformer than a shooter, but taking guns and various objects and handheld weaponry from you enemies and beating the crap outta them with those things was cool. Chaos powers were awesome. The story was full of plot holes, but definitely one of the most interesting in the Sonic universe. The game just needs to keep the Sonic Heroes controls intact, fix some glitches, use better graphics with little-to-no framerate fluctuation, and some better voices. But the fast-paced nature combined with the destructiveness in the game is dark and satisfying more than troublesome for me. It can't compare to the awesome Sonic Heroes, though. But it is alot better than Sonic 06!

And now Sega is making Sonic Unleashed, which is supposed to bring Sonic closer than ever to his roots as demoman_chaos has suggested for an idea. But that isn't enough for Sega. They need to make it different with a werehog. I'm just hoping it isn't like: Act 1 will be speed stages and Act 2 will be werewolf stages. If it were Acts 1 and 2 for speed stages, and Act 3 as a night stage, that'd be fine. This game NEEDS to surpass the quality of Sonic Rush Adventure and Sonic Advance 3 in a very noticable way in order to be up to standards with modern day console games.

From what Sega says the game has this night/day engine hopefully along the lines of something like Zeld in that it slowly changes to night and thus at night is when Sonic "changes."

Let's face it, we still don't know much about this game. We'll have to wait for E for All.

The PS2 version too. > _ >

After playing SADX again, I realized something. They got Sonic, Tails, and Knux abilities right. They control just like they should. The mid-air jump was correct, and the regular B-moves were good (though I think they could have tails and Knux do the spin dash and have Light Dashing as Sonic's B-specialty). I also liked how they rolled while moving (though it could get in the way if you were wanting to punch instead).

The only thing I see that really is wrong (besides Knux having a different style of level) is that Knux and Tail's B-special might be too simlar. Maybe they could give Knux a longer range and more power, while tails has a full 360 coverage with short range and less power (which should only matter on boss fights).

you could always use an AR and change that.demoman_chaos

He looks weird when running at full speed anyways.

Probably be best for SADX level swapping.

I did that, too, but it was weird or sometimes impossible due to suicidical start points. I had to use the jump code just to get Knuckles to beat Emerald Coast. Stupid transition.

Suicidal start points? Shouldn't they start in the same place.

Tails has a stage at Icecap.

Suicidal start points? Shouldn't they start in the same place.

Tails has a stage at Icecap.

demoman_chaos

Tails doesn't have the full Icecap stage. I took him to the full stage and he acted like Sonic when he saw the avalanche.