Search found 2939 matches

by Esrever
Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:47 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: Sonic 2016 Rumours
Replies: 104
Views: 78815

Re: Sonic 2016 Rumours

Remember how Sonic went from this to this in the Wreck it Ralph promo material? Not that I really disagree with that particular decision, but it's a reminder that SEGA are big sticklers about sticking to their model sheets. Capcom didn't care if Zangief has the wrong backstory, and NAMCO didn't care...
by Esrever
Tue Aug 25, 2015 12:31 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: Sonic 2016 Rumours
Replies: 104
Views: 78815

Re: Sonic 2016 Rumours

I think it's likely a mandate from SEGA's marketing department. They can be pretty restrictive about how Sonic can be depicted by licensees. Similar to how Sonic merch can only used existing artwork of the various Sonics (or new stuff that adheres very closely to one of those models), they probably ...
by Esrever
Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:44 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: Sonic 2016 Rumours
Replies: 104
Views: 78815

Re: Sonic 2016 Rumours

Dash 2 is an interesting case study. The core game itself is not as tight or slick as Sonic Runners, but the implementation of "mobile-y" features like character upgrades, daily challenges, and optional freemium stuff is way better: - Red rings let you purchase characters, rather than gamble for the...
by Esrever
Sun Jun 21, 2015 4:18 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Run Away
Replies: 51
Views: 98478

Re: Run Away

Sonic Runners is really solid, and I enjoyed it thoroughly for a few weeks. Unfortunately, once you get up to the higher levels it just becomes too tedious to advance. You need higher and higher scores to progress, and are given fewer and fewer rewards as you do so. And it becomes harder to GET thos...
by Esrever
Sat Jun 13, 2015 6:57 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: Sonic Boom Fire & Ice
Replies: 8
Views: 7856

Re: Sonic Boom Fire & Ice

It's probably important to remember that, budget-wise, the TV show is a much, much bigger investment then any of these dumb games are. It's the cornerstone of this project, and it's at least moderately successful I guess? As long as it's on the air, we'll probably keep getting tie-in games for the s...
by Esrever
Sat Jun 13, 2015 1:44 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: Sonic Boom Fire & Ice
Replies: 8
Views: 7856

Re: Sonic Boom Fire & Ice

I don't think the dev time for the first 3DS Boom was much longer than a year, either, to be honest. It had all the hallmarks of a quick licensed tie-in by a skilled team -- competent, repetitive, boring, short. And it also was way more accurate to the setting and tone of the TV show, which makes me...
by Esrever
Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:57 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: coming to theaters near you
Replies: 47
Views: 42277

Re: coming to theaters near you

AE Davis' Valkyrie art was adorable! I liked the Shiftylook comics that were the most... aggressive in their re-imaginings. That was certainly the mandate of the site: to take these old games (which often had only the most barebones of premises) and experiment with fleshing them out in radically dif...
by Esrever
Tue Dec 16, 2014 3:47 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: coming to theaters near you
Replies: 47
Views: 42277

Re: coming to theaters near you

Are you sure the problem isn't that you have TERRIBLE TASTE?

(I drew one of those comics and so did several of my friends, lol)
by Esrever
Sat Dec 13, 2014 4:36 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: coming to theaters near you
Replies: 47
Views: 42277

Re: coming to theaters near you

It's funny that Sony is simultaneously developing Sonic and Mario films. At least the Mario one is being conceived as an animated film, though.
by Esrever
Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:02 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: Xtremely Late!
Replies: 16
Views: 12870

Re: Xtremely Late!

Re: the Sonic X-treme footage.... it's interesting how the utility of being able to see further to the left and right than normal is almost completely negated by how bad the draw distance is.
by Esrever
Sat Nov 22, 2014 4:09 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: Great new Sonic game!!!
Replies: 10
Views: 9914

Re: Great new Sonic game!!!

They're quite good! Rayman Legends and Origins already had plenty of chase levels where you could never really stop running, so the gameplay and "feel" of those stages adapts pretty smoothly into an straight-up autorunner cellphone game. And of course, the Rayman Run games also have the luxury of re...
by Esrever
Fri Nov 21, 2014 12:49 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: coming to theaters near you
Replies: 47
Views: 42277

Re: coming to theaters near you

I will say... the thing about the PG-13 that makes me nervous isn't the idea that it'll go all grimdark, but that it'll follow the trend in PG-13 action films and make the CG characters super realistic. I'm trying to imagine what Sonic would look like done in the style of the new Turtles or even Roc...
by Esrever
Fri Nov 21, 2014 12:07 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: coming to theaters near you
Replies: 47
Views: 42277

Re: coming to theaters near you

For better or for worse, this is a "Sonic-comes-to-our-world" movie. I'm sure the goal is probably to make the next Transformers or Ninja Turtles or Avengers or Pirates -- something that adults, teens, and children (with their parents) will all go see. And all those movies -- all live action/CG hybr...
by Esrever
Wed Nov 19, 2014 5:01 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: Great new Sonic game!!!
Replies: 10
Views: 9914

Re: Great new Sonic game!!!

I just keep playing Rayman Fiesta Run and asking myself... why can't we get something like THIS? No high pressure microtransaction stuff. Just a one-price game full of tons of levels and pretty art. Jump isn't as bad with the FTP stuff as some games, but it's all so thin. You play the same three lev...
by Esrever
Mon Nov 17, 2014 6:28 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

In the Wii U game, Sticks is just a rando NPC in the hub with a tiny handful dialogue. She isn't presented as being any more important than, say, beaver chef man or sailor hippo. So, I think she was either created for the show and inserted into the game as an afterthought, or created for the game as...
by Esrever
Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:52 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

It's becoming fairly obvious at this point that the game was originally conceived as a full reboot. (Called "Sonic Origins" in much of the early concept art.) In this universe, Sonic and company were born in the game's setting, which explains all the hedgehog and echidna statues... they're their anc...
by Esrever
Sat Nov 15, 2014 4:45 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Hmm, that's interesting! Well, if it was co-op from the beginning, I guess what we can take away from that was that there was some serious misplaced hubris about their ability to add split-screen capability to the Crytech engine. Because yiiiiikes. Maybe it wasn't always a Wii U game... maybe they t...
by Esrever
Sat Nov 15, 2014 1:50 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

It also allowed for non gamepad-motion controls for the wisps. All in all it did make the game a lot more tolerable, and I wish it'd come out before I had already finished it!
by Esrever
Fri Nov 14, 2014 9:32 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

It's pretty clear when you play Boom that there was originally going to be a much larger, more epic story. I'm kind of curious what it was about. There's a lot of set up for a time travel plot, which is then hastily written out in an incredibly dumb way in the first third of the game, and then never...
by Esrever
Fri Nov 14, 2014 12:48 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

I think it depends on your sense of humour? For me, it has that rapid, hit-you-over-the-head overwritten quality shared by a lot of other overly scripty modern cartoons, and I found it kind of grating. Maybe they are still feeling it out, though. I thought the first episode made it work a lot better...
by Esrever
Wed Nov 12, 2014 3:25 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

They are around! But because there is no life system, the penalty for falling into them is pretty low. Actually, the penalty for failure is really low in general, which is maybe why the glitchy parts are usually not super frustrating. (Because unlike '06, you don't have to worry about restarting a l...
by Esrever
Tue Nov 11, 2014 3:14 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

It's definitely true that Boom doesn't provide the never-ending kaleidoscope of awful that '06 did. But I don't really think it's the worse for it. The combat is boring, and there are definitely some parts that are hindered or wrecked by performance issues, but there's still a fair bit of the game t...
by Esrever
Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:54 am
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

All right. After playing the game for about three hours, I'm upgrading my opinion of it for a bit. The game gets off on the worst possible foot with it's intro section (the part I played earlier). It's primarily four very tedious, very blocky 2D segments, with a couple of combat rooms and bookended ...
by Esrever
Sun Nov 09, 2014 8:01 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Yeaaaah. I only played it for about an hour, but it is exhibiting Sonic '06 levels of unfinished. The frame rate frequently drops to an absolute crawl at times, especially during speed sections. I also fell through the floor once. And during the cut scene that (I assume) would have introduced the ne...
by Esrever
Sat Nov 01, 2014 4:05 pm
Forum: Open Forum
Topic: New Sonic game for 2015
Replies: 398
Views: 338698

Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Considering it's the result of a massive three-year creative effort to build a cross-media Sonic brand, Boom is a pretty tragic story: - The flagpole game has had a primarily negative preview reception, is clearly being rushed, and is an exclusive to a struggling console few people own. - The televi...