Sonic. What Now?
 

I think most folks will agree that the Sonic franchise has been on a slippery slope for some time. Sonic Unleashed looks like it has potential to revise the franchise, but we shall see.

In another thread, Typhoid mentioned how the influx of new characters to make the game cool had a negative impact on the game. While that is true to an extent, I think Sonic was ok with his friends at first and the games just kept getting worse. To the point of Sonic 360.

So what does everyone think Sonic's pinnacle was?
When did he start going over the hill?
Do you have high hopes for Sonic Unleashed?
Which is your least favorite character?

And Eggman or Robotnik?

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

obviously it's impossible to top sonic 3 & knuckles, but sonic adventure 1 blew my mind
2 was great too but you could tell it was slipping a bit
sonic unleashed looks like it has potential if they make it primarily side scrolling, but i get the feeling that those sections will be sparse
every sonic game after sa2 was like "okay, that one was bad, but look at this new one! it will save sonic's franchise! oh what it's bad too? ok well look at THIS one, it will DEFINATELY save sonic's franchise"


and robotnik obviously

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

Hmmm, I really enjoyed the Sonic franchise, after having played the original on Master System. I wasn't a Sonic diehard by any means, however I did enjoy Sonic CD on the Sega/Mega CD, Sonic 3D on the PC (I know, I know...), Sonic R (I know, I KNOW!), Sonic Adventure and...of all things, Sonic Shuffle, for the brief time I spent with it.

I'm looking forward to the Bioware Sonic game, though. Simply due to it being different. I'm yet to try out the Sonic Rush games, which I really should.

And yeah, Robotnik.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

I liked sonic adventure 2. Mainly cause it was the only one I had and the making of chaos. That was the highlight of the game for me. I had some badass chaos!

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

The Genesis days, duh. Is this even debatable? Sonic 1-3 were pretty much perfect games, and Sonic and Knuckles rocked socks. Sonic was up there with Mario Bros. 3. It was THAT good.

When Sonic went 3D. There has yet to be a good 3D Sonic game. Even Sonic 3D Blast sucked. Sega was on the right track with the Dreamcast Sonic games...but they felt the need to add new characters and levels where you had to find stuff or do lame platforming. Seriously Sega, Nintendo has kicked your ass with Super Mario 64 in that area, Rare kicked your ass with Banjo and Conker, and Ubisoft kicked your ass with Rayman 2. Fans of Sonic want A SONIC GAME, like the Genesis ones. A game where you
A) play as Sonic
B) start at the beginning of the level
C) run towards the end of the level while collecting rings
D) fight bosses every two levels

It's really not that hard.

No. I don't have faith in Sega, I expect 1 fun level followed by 2 levels of lameness just like in the Sonic Adventure games.

The non-Sonic ones? All the ones that they added for the 3D games. Knuckles was always fun to play as.

Who cares? As long as they bring back the core Sonic gameplay no one will complain.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

Sonic Adventure 1 was probably the only good game that Sonic has made when they ventured out into 3D land.

Although all of the Genesis Sonic games were fun for me, except for the fucking Bean Machine and 3D Blast, I'd still say that two has a big place in my heart. That was the first game I had when I got the Genesis and remains my favorite to this day.

I've been giving up on 3D Sonic games as of late. Adventure 2 was ok at best. The next 3D one I was tried was the 2.5D Sonic Rivals on PSP, which was terrible IMO, and then I saw the beginning of Sonic 360 and I was just horrified.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

What'd you guys think of the GBA sonic games? I bought both and while the first was ok the second lost my interest for some reason. Haven't bothered playing a newer 3d sonic game cuz the reviews don't jive.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

The GBA Sonic games were pretty fun, at least they were like the Genesis ones. In fact, from what I remember, they were the best new Sonic games I played since the Genesis ones.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

I personally liked Sonic Adventure 2 to a point.

When you were playing as Shadow or Sonic, they were some awesome awesome segments. When you played as the rest it was hit or miss.

The problem with Adventure 1 and 2 for me was other than having these other characters with different play styles, you were FORCED to play as them in order to really complete the game so you could beat the entire game as Sonic, but not get to the final mission without doing the other 5 characters mission. And a lot of them were tedious.

As for the pinnacle of sonic, I still hold Sonic 2 in higher regards than any of the others.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

I don't think I would have minded playing as the other characters in Adventure 1 if didn't have to play as Big.

I hated that fat purple shit.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

Yeah Big was the worst character.
And I didn't beat the game until I could muster the strenght to play through his game.

He fished!

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

I was always able to rock Sonic 2...up until Metropolis Zone. Then it got hard. Sonic 2 was such a fun game....ohhh the good ol' days.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

I think Sonic Unleashed has a really good chance to restore my faith in the name that is Sonic.
I hadn't heard about it until now, and I read up on it, and it actually looks pretty promising.

And it has side-scrolling in some parts.
Fuck me now, it has side-scrolling.

Also, Robotnik all the way.
Eggman is a tool.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

/frightened

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

My fault.
Assuming everyone had seen the game before.


Gameplay footage for anyone else who hasn't seen.

It reminds me a lot of Sonic and the Secret Rings and unlike Dyne, I did actually enjoy that game so it has promise.

I thought he meant that as a positive.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

Sonic 3 was probably the Pinnacle, but I did enjoy Sonic Adventure very much at the time, I think it was fairlly ground breaking in a lot of ways. SA2 was also good, but they never took the game in a new direction...all the games play basically the same way they did on the Dreamcast, broken camera/ on rails feeling. They need to somehow rid themselves of that on rails feeling...not sure how to do it exactly but there's gotta be something better than the crap thats been coming out of Sonic Team lateley...

Oh, and one other thing...it really bugs me that sonics feet just dont look right recently. They need to make his feet turn into a spiral blur of sorts, it would greatly enchance the sense of speed...or at least, it would actually look like his feet are moving fast enough to pertain to the speed of the game.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

Crap, I forgot about the Wolf transformation part. I hope it doesn't ruin the game.

Re: Sonic. What Now?
 

I saw that last night and all that came out of my mouth was a "wtf?"