Modern Game Development and Sonic Boom

To me this is an absolute mystery!

Sonic Generations was well received by reviewers (as far as I remember) the general opinion of the game from everyone was very positive - yet the first thing they do is never return to the idea/formula.

It's sad that Sonic fans can make better games than Sega.......

 

Still baffles me as to why they never released any DLC. I'm not usually one for DLC but I would have lapped up new levels until I was broke. Generations was the game that fooled me into thinking that maybe, just maybe, being a Sonic fan was still worth the effort, but no, now we have Sonic Worlds and Sonic Boom. The series is doomed. Not even the legendary Sonic cycle is relevant anymore, nobody even gets foolishly excited on the announcement of a new title anymore.

What's even more mysterious is why they don't use their market research, the mobile remakes done recently by the Taxman and Stealth sold like hot cakes, surely they can't be so ignorant to assume that only the nostalgic are buying these re-releases, everybody loves them, which is why they should take that old formula of Sonic shutting the fuck up and just going left to right and fighting Robotnik.

I was a fan of the series as a kid because the rather open "plot" allowed my imagination to fill in the blanks, I'd then write my own stories, design my own games on paper, discuss theories with friends in the playground. I think companies these days assume that children have zero attention spans and need to be spoon fed every element of the plot, which is BS.

Many years later my art professor said to me in high school: "The beauty of art is not what you see, but what you don't see". So very true.

Anyway, Sonic cycle for reference for those who've never seen it:

 

haha yeah same as me, when me and my mates were younger playing these games the beauty was the simplicity.

Which is again like said, why the remakes sell so well.

DLC for Generations was something I really hoped for - then nothing! :-(

I liked Lost World as it kinda just felt like a different step to test the waters but Sonic boom looks plan awful.

 

So true Twimfy. Sonic just became a joke.

As soon as i saw the characters designs for Sonic Boom, i lost any faith. Sonic Generations was a small glimpse of good in the middle of 20 years of crap.

I don't get why Sega or whatever developer they choose, thinks that changing the character designs is a good thing. We all like the original short Sonic. Did Nintendo ever changed Mario? Made him taller? Gave him more "attitude"? NO!

I"m not saying that they can't change it, but every single game has a different Sonic design! For fucks sake Sega, just give us more of the Classic Sonic character and levels from Sonic Generations. Sonic is supposed to be fast game, not a slow paced paced platformer with ridiculous story.

This is what we want.



Also, if you want to make your characters talk, don't make them dumb.

 

I'm glad somebody chimed in that quickly. Felt a little lame, but hey. Applies rather well.

It wouldn't surprise me if this kind of thing starts happening even more than it does now. We'll soon see how much AC:U made, and I'm sure the number will be staggering.

 

Publishing Deadlines! Deadlines! Get game out, never fix it later. (In the case of consoles, spend literally tens of thousands of dollars to get your patch certified by MS/Sony. Even less incentive to actually DO ANYTHING)


I refuse to support games that launch in this state. It's malicious by the higher ups, gaming consumers with deception.


The MCC in particular is such a shoddy product that could've used at least another 3-6 months for optimization and polish.

I doubt it will ever be fixed. The only way it ever will is if a PC version is ever made and the deficiencies in performance at least can simply overpowered with brute force. Not optimization.

 

I think most of us would just be happy for PSO2 in English that doesn't completely gimp the English community in terms of content,patches,technical improvements/changes like SEGA did with all their other games

 

They have a new Phantasy Star game out in Japan this month, Phantasy Star Nova for vita. It's a single player experience and looks like its based on Monster Hunter.

Lets hope for a localized release, I know Sega does have some good teams going for it (like the Yakuza team) but they sure hand the Sonic franchise to whoever puts in the lowest bid to get the job done (my guessing).

 

Just want to leave this here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBru9KjOBE0

I really would love to present this video to someone at Sega and ask 'why'

 

I knew that this game would probably be a fail, but when I saw the first trailer I tought that there could be something playable at least, also, it was a studio made by former veterans from studios like Naughty Dog, but I didn't expect that it was going to be something like Sonic' 06.

The biggest problem is, even that is not like the original Sonic games, it would be bad if was using another or new IP anyway.

It happens because they know that the game is broken and that giving review copies and not making launch embargos will make people cancel their orders if the game doesn't go well in the scores. Just like the not screened for critics movies.

I also miss the demos, they force people to buy the game before trying a sample.

 

Are we really going to keep saying that Sonic Generations was the epitome of Sonic games? I thought it was fun, but certainly not something I wanted to see done again, there was an insane amount of boost pads and general gameplay direction towards maintaining speed. Very few platforming sections and loose controls in the "classic" levels, made me enjoy the "modern" Sonic levels far more. But, overall, I felt this game was closer to rhythm game or even a smartphone/tablet running game. This is not what made the original Sonic games fun, however I'm all for diversity and companies trying something new, so I liked it, however I never want to see another game like it.

When Sonic Boom was announced, I was actually digging it. Yeah the designs look weird initially, but I kinda like 'em, I can look besides that. At E3, I watched some of the gameplay and I thought that it looked pretty darn cool, besides the god awful writing and constant voice-overs. This looked like it could be a fun spin-off/different game from the norm. I honestly have no idea how they could fuck it up THAT bad.

We still have long ways to go for a really really good 3D Sonic game to appear. It might never happen, but if someone does nail the formula, it's going to be a huge hit.

 

I don't think anyone ever said Sonic Generations was a perfect or amazing Sonic game.

I still keep my opinion, it is a small glimpse of good in the middle of 20 years of crap. It's the closest thing we can call a modern Sonic game, even with it's flaws. Also i think it's important to say that the only reason Sonic games are still made is because the character "brand" still holds some value and fan nostalgia.

Crash Bandicoot, a good PS1 platformer, was a success while in the hands of Naughty Dog. As soon as Universal Studios/Vivendi/Activision started to hire companies to develop multiplatform releases, it all went wrong. They managed to release 4 games before giving up in 2008.

Crash Bandicoot last good game was released in 1999 and it's mostly forgotten today. For comparision the last amazing Sonic game was released in 1994. If it wasn't for the nostalgic fan base still alive, no companies would ever think about it and it would be forgotten as well. Like Twimfy posted on those funny cartoons, somehow people still haven't lost their hopes. The cycle continues.

 

There have been a few Sonic games since then that I think are pretty good. Sonic Adventure - the first one, though Sonic Adventure 2 is not a bad game except for the terrible music and the emerald collecting levels - Sonic Advance, and Sonic Rush (for DS) are pretty good. I maybe wouldn't call them great games, but I enjoyed them nonetheless.

 

Money, Dollars, Euros, Pounds, Yen, etc. There, answered that question.

Same goes with showing Ubisoft one of their terribly glitchy games.

I don't think anyone said Generations was the best Sonic game ever. I mean, we still live in a world where Sonic 2 exists (checks to make sure I haven't warped to an alternate, Sonic 2-less dimension). Other than maybe the first game, all the main Genesis line games were above all the 3D releases.

 

IIRC Sonic CD is also held in high regard. One of the top rated Sonic games before the switch to 3D.

 

I would argue that Sonic Lost World was a really really good 3D Sonic game (the Wii U version anyways, haven't played the 3DS one). In my mind, LW was what the natural progression of 2D->3D should have been. No friends, focused on platforming, and once you learn the levels you can have a blast zipping through them at break-neck speed while actually controlling Sonic (a novel concept).

But... game reviewers are apparently terrible at video games and cried about the difficulty ("What? Why are there limited lives? I keep falling down bottomless pits! I have to start the level over! Four lives isn't enough!!! Waaaaaa!!!!!") so LW took a hit from the critics and then Sega (stupidly) addressed their complaint by raising the starting amount of lives from 4 to 30. :|

In my mind Sega only needed to add in getting 100 rings = a new life (which they did), but that 30 lives business was overkill. Now extra lives are completely meaningless in the game.

So... thanks Kotaku and Polygon!!! Don't think LW had many (if any) glitches either. No friends to play as either. It was like Sega made a Sonic game to meet the requirements of gamers, and gamers spit in their face over it.

 

A major screw-up in Lost World was the addition of kicking, that was such a fucking awful and pointless mechanic that it almost ruined the entire game.

 

Heh, I'd actually forgotten that existed. I thought you only had to bother with it a few times though? (Forest level spiders IIRC, maybe a couple of boss fights).

 

There were some enemies that you could technically kill with homing attacks, it'd just take all day. It was a perfect example of trying to fix what isn't broken: Sonic doesn't need anything other than homing attacks. The whole "using Knuckles to fight" thing in Sonic Heroes was another example of a terrible mechanic for fighting enemies that was never necessary, and apparently Sonic Boom now has full-on beat-em-up style brawling...ugh.

Overall, Lost World was still a decent game, definitely better than most of the Sonic games that have come out in the last 15 years, including that Dimps abomination masquerading as Sonic 4.

 

For the most part I blame "different for the sake of different".
Games that know and stick to what works will always be more polished than misguided total overhauls (Zelda 2, Mega Man X7...), or juggling features/modes for little gain (WWE).