Blaze the fucking cat

[Nakasan_UKG]

Maybe, instead of presuming the worst, we could presume the best and take it that Sonic Team is using the name Blaze like a "We know the fan communities out there, and as Blaze is used so much, here, we'll put it in an official game - thanks for supporting us" kinda thing?
Also, with the utter derision most people have for the game without playing it, what exactly were people expecting? and answers like "no new characters" or "No lame 3d model ontop of 2d sprites" dont count, cause that doesn't actually answer the question, that answers what WEREN'T you expecting.

[j-man]

He makes a good point. What in the hell did we expect?

[CM August]

Myself, I didn't come in expecting anything; but I still think the polygons are ugly and the name Blaze is stupid. It isn't so much crushed expectations as much as it is taking it at face value. I'm still hopeful this game will play better than the Advance series, and the Blaze character could actually show promise. But hey, this topic IS called "Blaze the fucking cat" and we're mostly talking about the worst aspects here.

Anyway,

Maybe, instead of presuming the worst, we could presume the best and take it that Sonic Team is using the name Blaze like a "We know the fan communities out there, and as Blaze is used so much, here, we'll put it in an official game - thanks for supporting us" kinda thing?

They kinda sorta already did that. Gimme a sec to reword it...

"We know the fan communities out there, and as Shadow is so popular among you people, we're going to give him his own game with as much badass as we can pack in. Thanks for supporting us."

[Nakasan_UKG]

Ahh.... I see now, I thought this was a furries spin off thread originally, hence my confusion to the negativity.

[-wyvern]

I gave up on the series after Shadow picked up a pistol, so seeing this doesn't give rise to any emotion whatsoever.

And remember, this is an early beta. That horrible polygon sonic will probably look a lot better in the actual game. Not that I plan on playing it.

[Frieza2000]

Creating new characters and plots that actually affect the continuity in a big way devoted to this? The Sonic universe needs that like it needs a bullet in the head.

Sonic Team has openly abandoned all continuity. We've got a Shadow game with multiple endings (and it doesn't look like it's going to be a clear cut good/bad ending), time travel (ugh) during which you get to decide Shadow's origin on the fly, another game involving time travel, and what looks like a new set of Emeralds.

[Green Gibbon!]

Is it just me, or are you turning into me? You busted my ass for not liking the look of Sonic Heroes a few years back. Anyway, you're right.

It's because I don't have the sound of your voice to masturbate to, and it's the only way I know how to compensate.

Prior to the Sonic Heroes era, hope still existed in my heart. I still don't think Heroes is a bad looking game, though. A bit gaudy, maybe, but nothing like this 4-poly Sonic against GBA sprite backgrounds.

[G.Silver]

I like the looks of their water level.

[Green Gibbon!]

The water level does look cool. I mean I know it won't be, because it's Sonic Advance 4, but the whole Mediterranean city theme is a surprisingly fresh idea, and one that I think could work well in the Sonic formula if I thought Dimps had any competence.

[Lizard]

Has it been confirmed that Dimps is the developer?

[Esrever]

Sonic Advance 3 had a lot of problems, but it was a significant improvement. At least they've been moving in the right direction. They may get it eventually... :/

[Segaholic2]

That's like saying a billion monkeys on a billion typewriters could eventually type out the complete works of Shakespeare.

Or we could just say it's like saying evolution could've actually happened. LOL!

[Green Gibbon!]

Sonic Advance 3 wasn't a significant improvement on anything. It was less frustrating, but every bit as insipid, possibly moreso.

[Locit]

Actually, the game does involve time travel and Sonic and Blaze have to work <i>together</i> to collect the "Sol Emeralds", which are dangerous if in the wrong hands.

No, I'm not joking.

Wait. Hold on. Stop. Woah. But. No. How? No. But. Why? New. Not. This. Not. How?

Sol Emeralds?
SOL Emeralds?

[Esrever]

I thought Sonic Advance was incredibly spotty. Some of the levels really blew, and some of them were about the usual Advance series standard. But there were two that I thought did the series justice, with great art direction and interesting, multilayered level design: Sunset Hill and Chaos Angel. Those two levels give me hope; they tell me that there is at least one designer at Dimps who knows what the hell he is doing for at least some of the time. If they put some effort into it, they should at least theoretically be able to create an entire game up to that same standard, shouldn't they?

Also, Advance 3 had great music.

[Green Gibbon!]

Indeed. Fourth time's the charm, is it? To say nothing of every mediocre series they have under their belt, because they've never made a good game. Dimps amount to grunt labor and not much else.

Also, Sunset Hill sucked.


Another thing that concerns me about Rush is not so much the layered screens, but the fact that it's layered in the wrong direction. Very few Sonic stages are built vertically, and, like the Sonic Advance games, there still isn't enough buffer space on the horizontal plane. I'm afraid the constant swap between top and bottom will feel jumpy and out-of-control, and I also fear clunky level design as a result of their attempt to utilize the feature.

Have any movies been posted yet? I'd like to see it motion...

[Spazz]

Interesting Development:

Domino's now has a pizza called "The Blaze"

[Johnny]

Actually, if you take a gander at the new Sega E3 site, you'll be informed that our new Feline is infact a creature of royal rank. Yes, Queen Blaze. And she's from another dimension, no less!

What sounds perhaps even more worrying are the slithers about a "new arch nemesis", and "Dr. Eggman times two!". Coupled with that, there's some vague lines about bosses, with this whole "Your fate is 'touch 'n go'" blurb, which actually piques my interest considerably...

[Frieza2000]

Parallel universes collide

The storylines and outcomes differ

A new arch nemesis threatens the world. Dr. Eggman times two!

...

I suppose this is better than it taking place in the real Sonic universe. This probably means the Sol emeralds are the parallel of the Chaos Emeralds, so that's good as long as we NEVER SEE THIS DIMENSION AGAIN.

[Zeta]

First, Sonic Rush looks decent. I like the idea of a larger screen because Sonic stages are usually tall enough to make navigating them on a small portable screen tough enough.

I'm with Ese and Crazy Penguin on this. I LIKE Blaze's design! I mean, sure, the colors suck on her like ALL female sonic characters, but still - it's nice to see a female character who's obviously not insane (Amy), damsel in distress (Cream AND Amy), or a slut (Rogue AND Amy).

I would've prefered her green, though. But of course female characters can't be anything but a shade of pink.

5) Looks female without being coloured pink or having frightningly giant, detached-looking tits.

6) No fucking pink hearts anywhere on her.

7) Pretty much complete absense of "extreme" or "awesome" influences in her design. I don't feel like the artist is screaming "LOOK HOW COOL THIS IS" at me.

These powers combine to form the best female character design the Sonic universe has ever harboured, as far as I'm concerned. It hardly matches the outright unique genius of a design like Sonic's or Metal's or Big's. But within the realm of the characters that are forced into variations on Sonic's design, it works for me about as well as Knuckles and Fang do. These kind of characters are always going to look like "fan characters," in that their design is primarily based on Sonic's.

Exactly. I like her tons better than most of the other new characters. She fucking blows Rogue, Cream, and Shadow out of the water.

Maybe she's just moody.

I think she's just a damn aristicat. Heh. I make funny.

The best scenario I can imagine is that naming the character "Blaze" was a deliberate effort to poke fun at the Sonic fan community, because the name is already in use by every other fan character in the cyber ghetto. If that's the case I can almost see where they were trying to go with the humor aspect, but it's probably an altogether better idea to utterly disregard that side of fandom. They spank to Tails porn.

Supposedly Rouge was born out of popular fan demand for an evil counterpart to tails that was a bat, so . . .

Wow, Blaze could use a makeover. I think Blaze's character design would feel more at home in Klonoa as an evil servant or something.

She does, which is problably why I like her so much. I <3 Klonoa.

What sounds perhaps even more worrying are the slithers about a "new arch nemesis", and "Dr. Eggman times two!". Coupled with that, there's some vague lines about bosses, with this whole "Your fate is 'touch 'n go'" blurb, which actually piques my interest considerably...

It's like the Crash and Spyro crossover game, only Blaze doesn't have her own series. Two villains and two heroes from parallel dimensions team up with eachother . . . but hopefully Blaze's enemy won't be Robotnik in a wig.

[CM August]

Why cross-dimensional, though? I hope there's actually a good reason. With parallel worlds, Shadow's purposely muddy past and the upcoming action-shooter, the games are taking on more of the meandering complexity in your average Archie Sonic issue by the day.

[Ngangbius]

I'm with Ese and Crazy Penguin on this. I LIKE Blaze's design! I mean, sure, the colors suck on her like ALL female sonic characters, but still - it's nice to see a female character who's obviously not insane (Amy), damsel in distress (Cream AND Amy), or a slut (Rogue AND Amy).

If Queen Blaze turn out to be a Canon!Sue like a certain other royal 'Sonic' character then she fails as being a better character as those three--or any other Sonic character in general. Perfect characters are truly uninteresting and terrible because of any real lack of flaws. =/ That's why Scrappy Doo sucks.

If she turns out to be similar in Shadow in personality then well she will suck less because she will have some apparent flaws, but she will still suck in my eyes since that character type doesn't really appeal to me. =/ Unless...

...she turns out to be a or the true 'surprise' new villian and stays evil then I wouldn't have any qualms with that as the Sonic series has too many hero characters and too few villian characters.

Though if she really turns out to be yet another hero character, then I would have rathed have Tails(you know Sonic's best friend since 1992) or Sonic go solo than her.

[Zeta]

If Queen Blaze turn out to be a Canon!Sue like a certain other royal 'Sonic' character then she fails as being a better character as those three--or any other Sonic character in general. Perfect characters are truly uninteresting and terrible because of any real lack of flaws. =/ That's why Scrappy Doo sucks.

If she turns out to be similar in Shadow in personality then well she will suck less because she will have some apparent flaws, but she will still suck in my eyes since that character type doesn't really appeal to me. =/ Unless...

She looks like she's a stuck up bitch, which is a helluva lot more entertaining than damn Princess Sally. Who is a perfect bleeding heart heroine . . . ugh.

[Cuckooguy]

Y' know, I managed to get a hold of the Saturday Morning Sonic cartoon to remember if it was any good, and, well, it turns out Sally is more of a stuck up bitch than I remembered her to be. You know, the brand of generic female leads found in a lot of 80s cartoons, like Princess Zelda, and maybe Roll.

[Pepperidge]

I guess when I take the time to sit down and analyse it, Blaze has a pretty decent design, and isn't completely devoid of inspiration. But I still really can't bring myself to care... there's just no reason for her to exist. I've always been open to new characters in the past (moreso than a lot of people), but I really think we've finally hit overhaul here, and the fact that she's getting a less receptive welcome than Cream, a much less interesting character visually, did only supports that.

And while some of the level designs look OK in screenshots, Sonic Rush as a whole looks worse than G Sonic. Why do they suddenly decide to throw in these hideous polygons when the sprites were the best things the Advance series had going for it?