Sonic Rush Adventure E3 thread

Recent happenings of pertinence to Sonic fans.
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DackAttac
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Post by DackAttac »

Well, if it arrived, then you should open the case.

OH GOD I'M SO WITTY

I enjoyed it. Here's why.

The cutscenes were enjoyable because the expressions on the rendered figures up top worked brilliantly, and when you wanted to snap Marine's neck, so do Sonic and Blaze. And even though you knew the whole time she'd get her comeuppance, they didn't beat you over the head with the first Rush's sentimentality and morals bullshit and how you should always give people a chance. This enables Blaze to be an uninhibited frigid bitch, which the series kind of benefits from.

Hands down the best set of bosses in the Nintendo handheld series (of Sonic games. Is there a better umbrella term for Advance 1-3, Rush & Rush Adventure?). All that cheap one-hit-and-you're-dead mega-charge shot crap is gone. (But there were still opportunities for you to get crushed in the game, which is one of my favorite parts of the Sonic gameplay. It broke my heart in Secret Rings when I stood on a platform when a steam powered piston came down on me, and I just lost a few rings.)

Enemies are only in the middle of your path on certain islands where that's the point; bottomless pits are in there tastefully; the levels are just plain fun to play through.

Aside from Sol Emerald hunting, Blaze is optional. Gorgeous. Not like I hate playing as her, but I sure as shit did in Sonic Rush 1 when I had already played the damn game through once.

So, really, a lot of the 3D jet-skiing and whatnot probably was to pad out the seven-zone game to a more reasonable size without having to replay the whole thing. Although, that got me to thinking that that used to be plenty on the Genesis. And when you get right down to it, an act in an [umbrella term] title is probably the third of a Genesis act. Maybe that "extra little something" that the level design is still missing is size (as in, number and severity of roadblocks and puzzles)?

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Isuka
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Post by Isuka »

DackAttac wrote:(...) Hands down the best set of bosses in the Nintendo handheld series (of Sonic games. Is there a better umbrella term for Advance 1-3, Rush & Rush Adventure?).
I think most people here referred to it as the "Dimps" Sonic games, though such name would include Pocket Adventure and that abomination called Sonic N.

And despite not having played the game, two of the bosses I saw in a video look rather... simple. The very Klonoa-esque boss structure's pretty limited, I know, but those really looked simple and easy. Not challenging at all.
Last edited by Isuka on Tue Oct 02, 2007 7:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Timestones
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Post by Timestones »

Because Sonic games have always been synonymous with difficult bosses.


PS: Fun does not always equal difficult.

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Zeta
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Post by Zeta »

LIAR! Why else do you think teddy bears try to punch you in the dick whenever you play with them?!

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DackAttac
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Post by DackAttac »

Punching? I thought that's what an attempted handjob was when you lack fingers.

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James McGeachie
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Post by James McGeachie »

Isuka wrote:And despite not having played the game, two of the bosses I saw in a video look rather... simple. The very Klonoa-esque boss structure's pretty limited, I know, but those really looked simple and easy. Not challenging at all.
Only 2 bosses in the game follow the circular arena structure this time around, the rest vary between different types of area, perspectives and gameplay types.

One boss for example is played from a behind-Sonic 3D-game viewpoint, where you're dodging obstacles on the bottom screen while attempting to hit other objects that propel you to hit the boss on the top screen, who has platforms revolving around him to land on. It's a pretty innovative fight.
Last edited by James McGeachie on Wed Oct 03, 2007 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Esrever
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Post by Esrever »

Like in the classics, most of Rush Adventure's boss fights are not especially challenging. However, as always, there are a couple of fights towards the end that are real life-eaters. Final Swell -- particularly the harder Sol Emerald mission variation -- is a complete bastard. (Although he's not as quite brutal as the regular final boss in the first Sonic Rush.)

I quite like the boss battles in this game... particularly the one James described, but also the squid and the pendulums. The only one I didn't care for was the fight against Whisker and Johnny... it just reminded me too much of clunky hodge-podge battles that happened whenever you fought one of the other playable characters in SA2 or Sonic Heroes.

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Radrappy
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Post by Radrappy »

http://gonintendo.com/?p=27672

OUCH! It's kind of satisfying to see Sega pay for their decline in quality. Kind of.

Maybe they'll stop releasing press tidbits about how well Sonic & Mario is going to sell now.

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Zeta
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Post by Zeta »

Too bad they aren't paying for it via the drop in sales of a game that deserved it. Leave the Rush series alone, it's the only good thing we have left, dammit!

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Esrever
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Post by Esrever »

How many copies of of Secret Rings or Sonic 2006 did they sell? I was under the impression that Sonic's sales in Japan have been dead-in-the-water for some time now.

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Isuka
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Post by Isuka »

It looks like they weren't as proportionally bad as 1500 game copies in an almost 20000000 consoles market base on release.

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DackAttac
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Post by DackAttac »

I'm sure the fact Sonic's no longer a guaranteed good time is a huge factor, but did anyone else kind of forget this was coming out?

Really, there was a time if a canon 2D game was coming out, a big deal was made. Maybe they did about as much hypework as they did for the original Rush, but with a hopeless laundry list of new titles in the works at the time Rush came out (Riders 2, Rivals 2, Bioware RPG, Mario/Sonic), it was harder than usual to name the real platform title in the mix at the drop of a hat.

How'd this do stateside? I've had a feeling that they crank these out as long as the fans over here buy them. You know, the fans that bought Shadow. The fans that care more about lines that support Sonic, Knuckles and Shadow's twisted love triangle that they've used as a basis for the fanfiction that fills their hard drive.

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Kogen
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Post by Kogen »

It's not doing as well as the first one, but I'm sure that's because it isn't Christmas. Even Sonic Genesis sold a lot last year due to poor uninformed kids, so this certainly should.

I don't think a Sonic game that wasn't Sonic Adventure sold good in Japan ever, did it? They're too busying pressing A for 20 minutes in RPGs while text covers the entire screen.

Also you can't say anything bad about those modern Sonic fans, they're perfectly sane. Just look at these two cool dudes with their tudes':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNyk9AJ4Bgg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMIqQCXv ... ed&search=

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Isuka
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Post by Isuka »

I beg Nintendo to bring Chaplin back from the Other World and make him voice Sonic. Pretty pleeeeaaasee?? :|

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Post by Ngangbius »

Kogen wrote:I don't think a Sonic game that wasn't Sonic Adventure sold good in Japan ever, did it?


I seem to recall either Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 did relatively well for a Mega Drive game there. Somewhere around the half-million mark in lifetime sales.
They're too busying pressing A for 20 minutes in RPGs while text covers the entire screen.
Or training their brain, eyes, face, knowledge of common sense...

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big_smile
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Post by big_smile »

Esrever wrote:How many copies of of Secret Rings or Sonic 2006 did they sell? I was under the impression that Sonic's sales in Japan have been dead-in-the-water for some time now.
Sale figures from Hari Hari:

GBA only Ranking
rank title ------- firstweek/ total
**59 SonicAdvance1 38,454 / 204,542
**72 SonicAdvance2 28,974 / 176,541
*145 Sonic Battle, *8,120 / *60,213
*160 SonicAdvance3 *6,732 / *42,574

GC only
**34 Sonic Adventure2 B 30.295/ 192,186
**57 SonicMegaCollection -----/ *72,967
**60 Sonic Adventure DX, 20,763/ *58,977
**63 Sonic Heroes -----, -----/ *56,281

Wii only
**16 SonicSecretRings *9,353(firstweek)

SonicRush, ShadowTheHedgehog and SonicTheHedgehog(Xbox360/PS3)
Because the sales of them were too small, I could not find those results. (^^;;

DC only
***1 Sonic Adventure1 176,614/ 438,707
**23 Sonic Adventure2 *84,508/ 108,483
**28 Sonic Adventure1 *20,009/ *53,341 (International version)

SS only
**32 SonicJam 45,288/ 76,525
**49 Sonic R, ------/ 16,118


It's worth nothing that Sonic isn't really a priority for SoJ any more. In the past there was a heavy push of the franchise (such as the 'Sonic the Dancers' events and the Sonic contests that were held at TGS), but these days most of SoJ's marketing is limited to a few low key TV commercials. Even the Japanese Sonic Town has been reworked into a general video game arcade.

^_^

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Zeta
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Post by Zeta »

Damn. Those sales are going straight into the toity. You think they'd notice and decide to do something, but obviously not . . .

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Black Rook
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Post by Black Rook »

They've tried every trick they know, and so far none of them have helped.



Well, they haven't tried "improve the fucking gameplay on the console games" since that's apparently not something they know how to do.

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Zeta
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Post by Zeta »

They've tried every trick except put effort into testing, level design, gameplay, and control - yes.

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Post by Ngangbius »

big_smile wrote:It's worth nothing that Sonic isn't really a priority for SoJ any more. In the past there was a heavy push of the franchise (such as the 'Sonic the Dancers' events and the Sonic contests that were held at TGS), but these days most of SoJ's marketing is limited to a few low key TV commercials. Even the Japanese Sonic Town has been reworked into a general video game arcade.

^_^
So it seems like Nintendo will be the ones to heavily market Sonic to the Japanese instead of Sega. Funny.

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Post by Arcade »

Would be that bad if Sega tried to create a new mascot? Or at least a new videogame character that has decent games?

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DackAttac
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Post by DackAttac »

Right, because the reason the games have been awful is because of Sonic himself. The bastard just won't respond to controls the way he used to, and the years of meth use have just taken its toll. With a new mascot, the consistently awesome developing talent at Sega can be properly showcased again.

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Post by Black Rook »

Arcade wrote:Would be that bad if Sega tried to create a new mascot? Or at least a new videogame character that has decent games?
Fantastic idea! Make a new game with a new mascot. Let's call him Nitro the Sarcosuchus! Let's put make Nitro work! Zeta recommends putting effort into testing, level design, gameplay, and control. Yes, let's do that! Let's make Nitro the Sarcosuchus the next big video game star!

Wait a minute! We already have a globally recognized mascot with a built-in audience that's been asking for a great Sonic game for years! If we have the capacity to make a good game based on Nitro the Sarcosuchus, why not just put that effort into making a good Sonic game?

Oh, right, because that would make too much fucking sense.

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Zeta
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Post by Zeta »

I vote Nitro the Sarcosuchus become our new mascot. A crocodile 10 times the size and 10 times as fast as the modern crocodile. Also, his archenemy is Doctor Aubergine. A fat time-traveling mad-scientist who went back in time to enslave the dinosaurs to conquer the future with an army of mind-controlled dinosaurs.

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Isuka
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Post by Isuka »

You know that, if someone mischevious enough actually reads this and mails it to PROPE we're screwed, right?

Whatever, I believe there're still some 'tricks' SEGA hasn't tried in the land of the rising sun that could have made Sonic much more popular, but all of them require vast amounts of money, effort and even a high degree of faith in the whole project... that is, the exact opposite of churning out sucker after sucker. But as long as SEGA (and Sammy, of course) has something else than Sonic to support it, they'll probably never feel the need to do such a thing. Unless it's a motherfucking gigantic tropical storm of nostalgia like Brawl or a completely new formula like Galaxy, old school platforming mascot gameplay is over.

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