The GHZ Forum

I really love this new trend of affixing whatever viewpoint one opposes as that of mainly "13-year-old" boys/fanboys/n00bs/whatever. Who says credibility ain't free!

And personally, Sonic Team seems as if it's uncertain how it's going to proceed, since Sonic 360 was supposed to be the huge installment, but they seem to be abandoning its line for a series of Wii titles.

So, in that sense S360 may have been the out-of-canon "spin-off". With the abandoned epic-platformer series they've abandoned for the time being, the on-rails(-for-now) Wii series, the DS Rush series, (and for awhile, there was the Rivals addition, but that seemed not to make much of a splash so not much will likely come of it). Right now it seems to me they're lobbing a bunch of ideas at the wall to see which ones stick. Eventually, maybe which titles have been taken into consideration plotwise may come into focus, but right now it's kind of up in the air.

Plus, a game's shittiness is unrelated to its plot contributions. Shadow was terrible, but it explained a few things. Not as many as it promised, but its whole point of existance was to reveal more about Shadow. The gunplay just seemed to kinda fall into place.

everyone knows 13 year olds hate on-rails gameplay. They are all about freedom and not having their spirits constrained by the man.

And that's why no grown-up likes Gears of War or Half-Life, they have to much damn freedom. C'mon man, the game's probably awesome just like other on-rails titles, but the fact here is that it's not classical Sonic.

DA's right, plus I noticed that the only new concepts that have been kept as of currently in the Sonic's main series is the overall realistic tone, but not much more; they are constantly experimenting, which can be both good or... you know.

It being "non classical" doesn't make it a spin-off.

And besides, haven't many been heralding Secret Rings as being closer to the classics than the Adventure games?
There is no "classic" gameplay style since things went 3d. What that entails is up in the air. The series has never been about backtracking (it failed miserably when implemented in Team Chaotix's gameplay in Heroes. ) and the old games generally consisted of constantly moving forward. By all accounts, Secret Rings is closer.

So please, before you start categorizing sonic adventure or sonic 360 as closer to "classical sonic" please think about it.

I rather think you're splitting hairs.

Miztah Whiskers looks fo SHizzle.

These screens of the 2D stages are pretty awful, which is surprising, because the original Sonic Rush looked pretty good. But man... "Black-outlined squares filled with gradients" is not really a compelling design motif, especially on top of such... er... "subtle" backdrops. No objects in the foreground, no layers of paralax scenery in the background. Everything just looks so... empty!

I love the Captain Whiskers artwork, though. Robot pirates seem fairly in line with the enemies of the classic Sonic universe.

@ Radrappy: There is a good possibility that I am actually older than you.

I don't really like it that SatSR is on rails, because it couses some cheap deaths and cheap gameplay distortions. However, I love SatSR all the same, because there is enough to love about it. What makes SatSR especially great is not necesserily its game mechanics, but its level design. So, even though I love this game, I am not keen on seeing another Sonic game with this game mechanics. It was very nice for one game, but not for using it more than once. I am also not categorizing by game quality, but by things like game mechanics, theme and story and SatSR is pretty much totally off, mostly because of its theme. As said, not that the theme is bad, it's actually pretty nice, but for a main Sonic game, I prefer Sonic to hang around in modern places and smash robots. So, yes, I personally prefer to count SatSR a spin-off.

Thoughts:

* Sonic in "Treasure Island"? Erm, OK . . .

* I'm dissapointed it's Tails instead of Blaze.

* Sonic meets Phatom Hourglass gameplay? WTF?!

Seriously though, what the hell happened?

From this...


...to this?

@stardust

I mostly agree with you actually. However do you suggest they have another go at the old Sonic Adventure gameplay formula for sonic's next 3d outting? Personally I'd rather see them hone the Secret Rings gameplay. There's a lot of potential there if polished and done right.


Also could the drop in art quality be due to the fact that an entirely different team is heading this game?

I'm just mad that they are not making a psp sonic game. rivals doesn't count.

Sonic Rivals was on the PSP. It counts, stop whining.

Developed by SEGA Studios, Sonic Rush Adventure for the Nintendo DS will be available in Autumn 2007.

The fact that they are developing this game does not bode well for me. It could be decent, but Sega Studios can't seem to make a good game within a years time(or at all).

I think the reason is that Sonic Rush did substantually better than Rivals financially(even if you personally think it doesn't count) is the reason why they are putting another Sonic on the DS than the PSP.

Also, I agree with Esever in that the backgrounds so far look bland and lifeless.

I approve of the pirate theme, but that's because I have a pirate bias.

Also, I don't know what to think of the vehichles. I really don't want to sound pessimestic, but I imagine that those sections would break the game for me if they weren't implimented decently. After playing SA2 and Jak II, I've become not that fond of vehichle gameplay being tacked on the platformers.

EDIT: Yikes! I didn't see the part where Sega Studios are developing it...RUH-ROH!

@ Radrappy: Well, I'd say for the next main Sonic game, they should stick to the theme of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), to the story-style of the Sonic Adventures, to the characterization of Sonic and the Secret Rings and to the game mechanics of Sonic Rush, but in 3D (although this would be quite hard to do). Level Design should be a mixture of Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic Rush in 3D. Sonic should remain the only playable character. Special Stages should return too, but in a fresh style, not again in the half-pipe-style.

I think the drop in art quality is due to the fact that the game is in early development.

Haha Esrever that picture comparison. I would say however, that this game is obviously nowhere near finished, and over the time between now and Autumn extra detail is likely to be added. These are also only a few snapshots, and may or may not be an accurate reflection of the rest of the level and/or other levels. Either way, what we see here could be far worse.

When was the last time we saw early production shots that weren't almost like the finished product? I mean it, 'cause I can't remember.

But maybe those bland-looking backgrounds have infact some type of animation or something? Maybe they morph or change dynamically from day to evening to night and so, changing enemies placement and such?

Yeah, I'm thinking damn high. It's just SEGA Studios sucking at it again; in the end they didn't do it with Sonic 2006 (the daytime dynamic change), did they? There's no reason to implement it in a DS game... or is it.

There's too many unknowns right now so i'm keeping my trap shut and staying off the speculation express. But i'll clarify a couple things: Next was a Sonic Team project; SSUSA kept out of the way except for Iizuka, who did something worth getting into the Special Thanks for.

The press release stopped short of specifying which Sega Studio was making this: USA (Iizuka and friends), or Japan (Sonic Team/UGA). When important people start getting interviewed, we'll know.

I think the drop in art quality is due to the fact that the game is in early development.

That Rush shot Esrever posted was from early development.

That comparison's rather unfair, though. It leaves out surfaces; it's all background, as opposed to the original Rush's, which is almost all surface. Look at this one:



I'd be alright with this style, by and large. Not trilled, but it's not terrible.

FlashTHD wrote:Next was a Sonic Team project; SSUSA kept out of the way except for Iizuka, who did something worth getting into the Special Thanks for.

Wait, that's not supposed to inspire confidence, is it?

No, just setting the record.

On the other hand, I never really did like the cell-shaded models from the first game and I think these new ones are an improvement. Hopefully they're waiting to show more interesting backrounds as we get closer to release.

The 2d shots look fucking dire in comparison to Rush and it's obvious why. Dimps have had years of 2d experience with the franchise, this is in development at Sega Studios apparently, probably because Sega ruined their relationship with Dimps or whatever. I bet there's barely anyone left in that worthless studio that has the first clue about making a 2d title.

More so than the visuals just now though I'm actually worried about the gameplay. I'm getting a feeling this "hybrid" style will make them feel like they have an excuse to not make either the 2d or 3d gameplay "outstanding", simply because they can spout out shit about having variation. I'm really not sure that Sega have it in them to develop quality 2d level design nowadays either, it's not like Yasuhara is still with them and they've farmed out every 2d title to other developers ever since.

To not be entirely negative though I do have some positive notes about the game so far. I like the art of Captain Whiskers and I don't mind there being a new villain again, even if he is just another variation on Eggman. The pirate theme sounds interesting too and I'm glad we're seeing another range of original level concepts instead of a retread through the same shit like we got in the Advance series. If the 3d stages are something like a mix between the special stages of Rush and SatSR gameplay they might end up being fairly fun too...but that's a pretty big "might".

Anyway I'll be looking forward to seeing more information and media on this but right now I'm nowhere near as interested as I was in Rush. I'm willing to bet Naganuma wont be coming back for the soundtrack either....damnit.

Actually, I sort of hope it's Eggman in a crappy disguise. I could dig that.

Esrever wrote:Seriously though, what the hell happened?

Dimps went away, that's what. Dimps was made up of former SNK employees, and their natural OCD lead to some very detailed backgrounds and sprites.

Now that they're gone, we're left with third-string Sonicteamers.