Wooduck51 wrote:Accurate history of Shadow's level of awesomeness
Convert "Shadow's awesomeness" to "game's awesomeness:"
SA2:
Sonic Heroes:
Sonic Battle:
Shadow the Hedgehog:
Sonic Riders:
Sonic 2006:
Sonic Rivals: Promoted back to
Make no mistake, Shadow has become the Herald of Suck. It doesn't matter how involved he is with the game, or even if he's the one making it suck; the fact remains, if he's in it, there's a good chance it's crap, and chances are removing him from the game wouldn't fix the problem.
...Of course, we all strongly suspected this before we knew Shadow was going to be in AUX JEUX OLYMPIQUES!!!!!
Don't worry Isuka, they speak non-sense. Shadow always sucked. For a random example: he shoots lasers out of his hands in STH06 and is searching for the Staff of Darkness. He's about as cool as Spyro the Dragon's anti-hero guy.
And I'm under the assumption this game has no story mode, or if it does, it's very vague. So Shadow wouldn't really be able to ruin an entire game like he usually does - not that there's a lot left to ruin here.
They should put in a spoof of ShTH and have him mounted on a motorcycle whenever he does skeet, and instead of the standard issue rifle he'll pull out his chrome 45 and take them out gangsta style.
If all the characters had unique animations/equipment for every event it would be pretty cool, at least visually. But yeah, I suppose that would require style or something.
If you haven't heard, Sonic has a lifevest in the swimming events. Also, Vector actually swims like a crocodile. Who says the game won't have style?
MattManic at the MoFo said:
I can't offer links because it's kinda hard to link to things that happen in real life =p
I got a chance to play a demo version of it today and I was Sonic in the 100m freestyle. He wears a life vest while he's swimming and does some sort of bizarre standing breast-stroke (on the same note, Vector swims exactly like an actual crocodile would, which is made of absolute win). I came dead last twice, although I wasn't expecting to do well with Sonic. Daisy, Peach and Yoshi all did pretty well.
The only other event they had for demo was the 100m sprint (or whatever the correct name is). I didn't get a chance to play because there were about a dozen nine-year olds who'd overtaken the area, but Sonic won the race with a good 2 or 3 seconds ahead of whoever came 2nd.
It seems like it's gonna be a good party game, but as we've speculated it's basically an Olympics game with Sonic and Mario characters in it, rather than a Sonic/Mario game set at the Olympics. It sorta feels like Wii Sports 2.
Indeed I do, but when you can only pick eight of your characters, when a sizable portion of your core audience is going to be Mario fans who don't really know much about Sonic, you basically say "these eight characters are the important ones; the major ones you should be familiar with should you ever pick up a game." And with the Advance games, Heroes, Riders, the Rush cinemas fresh in mind, I honestly thought Cream was going to be a permanent fixture, permanently brandishing the series as "kiddy shit". And you're right, her appearance doesn't help, period, in that front. But for awhile, I was honestly afraid she was going to be marketed as "the new Tails".
Speaking of, since Sonic Rush Adventure and Secret Rings turned out to be enjoyable, I decided to use the power of YouTube last week to watch the cinemas of Sonic360, simply to get myself caught up. And when the last three minutes hit the big Control-Z on the whole debacle, I became so infuriated I attempted to shake the last two hours of my life back out of the computer, but that's neither here nor there. I was aghast at (a number of things, but one of which was) what an utter shell of a character Shadow is now that he knows his origins and has accepted neutrality with heroic tendencies, there's really no more mystery in him, and you know what? Now that it's gone, it's all the more apparent he has no personality. He's cold as ice, but not silver-tongued enough to make it interesting. When Eggman throws the lone attempt at comic relief his way, he merely deflects it like a hailstone off a tank.
I won't pretend Shadow is the bane of everything. I do agree with the smilie chart above, except I enjoyed the shit out of Riders, but the point is he was interesting enough to serve as a decent plot device in SA2. And with all this Iblis/Black Arms/Erazor/Sol/Sephiles/Void/Solaris/magic/psychic/time-traveling/alternate-dimensions bullshit, the fact that he at least got my attention and an honest stab at comprehension is saying something; whether or not it was abused by some truly horrifying stunt-writing in the subsequent games is another matter altogether. The conclusion was a wonderful end to the whole thing, it's a shame they desecrated it by digging up his corpse. His backstory was what made SA2 interesting, not his character. So now that the former is resolved and bent out of proportion, the latter comes into focus as hollow as the inside of [insert hated person here]'s skull. While he may be a harbinger for lousy gameplay now (and a guarantee for some painful dialogue), I find that makes it kind of ironic that his gameplay was one of the best parts of SA2.
Osamu Ohashi - The game's Producer wrote:
This title...has 20 events...based on the true Olympic games , and four events called "Dream Events," based on the worlds of Mario and Sonic.
The quote is from the "TGS 2007 Interview" video.
Last edited by MiraiTails on Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
DackAttac wrote:And with the Advance games, Heroes, Riders, the Rush cinemas fresh in mind, I honestly thought Cream was going to be a permanent fixture, permanently brandishing the series as "kiddy shit".
Despite her consistent presence in the games, both Shadow the Hedgehog's (the game) and Sonic 360's dark atmosphere, aside from their massive suckiness, collide with this "kiddy shit" theory, or at least complement it with "angsty teen shit".
That said, effectively Shadow's character in SA2 was greatly enforced because of his pivotal role and importance in the story, an element that looks to have been greatly exploited in his game, ultimately leaving him as a worthless, irrelevant character afterwards. He was/ is one-shot material, he simply has no place in the series outside of his protagonic role games.
Last edited by Isuka on Wed Oct 03, 2007 7:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
Isuka wrote:Despite her consistent presence in the games, both Shadow the Hedgehog's (the game) and Sonic 360's dark atmosphere, aside form their massive suckiness, collide with this "kiddy shit" theory, or at least complement it with "angsty teen shit".
The difference is people talked about and defended Advance 2, 3 & Rush. Most people pretend Shadow and Sonic 360 just plain didn't happen. Hell, Sonic Team did us the favor of not leaving that part to the imagination on the latter title. So, yes, there was a counterpoint of angsty teen shit and kiddy shit, but when the kiddy shit fares slightly better in the public eye...
Hey, playable Miis. That's nice. With the Brawl news, having something new to do with my little guy actually stands as the main selling point now. Of course, once they're confirmed for that game it's all over.
With Sonic now confirmed for Brawl I doubt anyone really gives a shit about this game anymore but for what it's worth a few more details have been revealed.
Miis can be used as playable characters and the dream events have been revealed.
Dream Race (Sandhill Race Course) - Get on your marks for this intense power-up filled race course, made for either one player, or as many as four.
Dream Platform (Tropical Reef Diving Area - 10,000M Diving) - More like skydiving, soar through hoops and perform aerial tricks while avoiding obstacles and opponents to reach the finish line first.
Dream Fencing (Duel Wharf Fencing Beach) - With unique special attacks for each character, this jungle-inspired world offers the ultimate duel.
Dream Table Tennis (Speed Rally Table Tennis Stadium) - A sci-fi wonderland, this magical table tennis extravaganza offers a special ability for each character - so move fast!
The addition of Miis is pretty cool but it does make this game seem even more like "Wii Sports 2". The dream events sound pretty lame though although maybe they'll look better in action.
I was tentatively excited about this game to start with but now is there any point? Sure I’ll pick it up just for a bit of a laugh and because I’ll probably get my mates or family playing it but anything to do with this game pales in comparison to the significance of Sonic being in Smash Bros.
When you think about it, there could actually be some kind of bizarre balance here: Brawl for the "hardcore gamers", Olympics for the "casual gamers"--after all, this is, in my head, WiiSports with Mario & Sonic characters added, and WiiSports is a hit among the "casual crowd"...