Sonic Generations

[K2J]

This looks interesting, but I agree that it very much looks like they're just doing this because the media perceived the character design as being the main complaint of Sonic 4

Sonic 4 came out last summer. This game comes out in 2011. If that were the case, it would mean this game has been in development for less than a year, not including the CGI cutscenes that would have to be animated.

I meant in the way people perceive the addition of Classic Sonic, not the actual reasoning.

[Dash]

Get Martin Burke on the phone!

"You may know everything I'm going to do, but I know everything you're going to do. STRANGE, isn't it?!"

This is all pretty cool. I fear they're going to make some horrible official explanation for why Sonic's eye color changed ala that Archie Comic story, but still neat! Let's just see SEGA program perfect control for classic sonic, and then just blindly assume that the character design is what's really been wrong all these years(not that Silver isn't an abomination).

Yes you can put me in the camp that likes Sonic's post-SA design better, and has sorta disliked the gradual toning down of it's more extreme features. There is a different but great appeal to the classic designs though and it'll be great to see them in motion again. Peach eyelids fo' life yo.

[MiraiTails]

...No one on this board hates Sonic or Sega more then me...

C'mon guys. Let's not fight! We are all brothers and sisters in Sonic/Sega hatred here at GHZ.

[Radrappy]

Yes you can put me in the camp that likes Sonic's post-SA design better,

get out

[Kogen]

You know, assuming his game has voice acting, they should totally get Jaleel White to voice classic-style Sonic.Yes I already know about the Eddie Lebron film, but this would have an even bigger impact for sure.

Ugh. Please no. Jaleel was fine for AoStH-style Sonic, but I would hate to hear his nasally voice come out of classic Sonic.

I don't even want classic Sonic to talk at all. I want him to speak via his body language. Maybe have a cutscene where modern Sonic is making a wisecrack at Eggman, while classic Sonic stands in the background, making a "nyah nyah!" face.

Or maybe while Eggman goes on and on about his "master plan", classic Sonic folds his arms and rolls his eyes.

I won't be buying this game either.

..All that's been shown so far is a 50 second CGI video! At least wait until some gameplay footage is shown before reserving judgement.

This looks interesting, but I agree that it very much looks like they're just doing this because the media perceived the character design as being the main complaint of Sonic 4

Sonic 4 came out last summer. This game comes out in 2011. If that were the case, it would mean this game has been in development for less than a year, not including the CGI cutscenes that would have to be animated.

I think the reason Sonic had green eyes in Sonic 4, was because SEGA was waiting for the 20th anniversary to bring classic Sonic back. If we had seen the return of old-school Sonic last year, then this teaser wouldn't have elicited such shock and anticipation from the Sonic community. SEGA did the right thing by waiting for this game to be the grand return of Sonic's retro design.

You have some strange understandings of things. Sonic 4 was made by DIMPS and 'Sonic Team' is just a logo. A lot of different groups of people make Sonic games. Multiple games get developed at the same time and overlap.

As for the green eye suggestion... you are just giving idiots an excuse for their mistakes.

[Esrever]

I like the modern green-eyed Sonic design a lot! I also really like classic Sonics, from both the Japanese and US art.

Companies should be WAY more willing to let cartoon characters change and evolve, and to experiment with different styles over time. It's part of what made classic characters like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny so much fun through the 30s-60s, and so boring since then... that feeling of a rich, varied history full of memorable, distinct eras. Not every version is going to be a winner, but that's OK, because you know they're going to keep moving on and trying new things... and keep acknowledging and respecting the versions that came before. (It's not like Disney took classic-styled Mickey and locked him into a vault, never to be seen again, just because they came up with newer versions.)

I feel like Nintendo dabbles in this slightly, but I'd love to see more of it... especially with a character like Mario, who is involved in so many different series. Wouldn't it be cool if each one had it's own visual identity, just like Paper Mario, the classic 2D titles, and the Mario Soccer game do? That generic CG Mario style they use for everything else is getting pretty stale.

[P.P.A.]

SEGA has taught me better than to take anything without an unhealthy dose of scepticism. Classic Sonic looking more cute than WAY COOL has been mentioned, but besides that and me thinking that his pupils are positioned a bit strangely (too centred and closely together), there’s another thing that greatly bothered me about his design: When he bops off the ground after landing, his body is comically stretched to the point where his head and body almost separate and are clearly recognisable as two independent spheres.

blarg i am headless.png (75.2 KiB) Viewed 22576 times

This mustn’t be! Of course, this is what his anatomy is, but all old artwork of Sonic (save for the ugly Sonic 3D FI renders) has always made sure to conceal this by lowering his head so it merges with the body sphere a little, or by making him look down a little in order for his muzzle to hide the melding point where his neck would be, had he one. They seem to remember this throughout the rest of the trailer, at least.

Another thing rousing my concern was the part where Modern Sonic drifted, slid, and hopped over small things in his path, all along a linear course. I really hope this is just meant to underline his modern identity and not any indicator for what the gameplay will look like. That said, I actually don’t mind drifting. Considering Sonic’s speeds, it’s a logical mechanic (and much preferable to Sonic Adventure’s “touch the control stick and watch Sonic abruptly run in a 90° angle”-approach) and—unless it’s as badly implemented as in Sonic Colors where you can only drift at certain points making it useless—could be a fun gameplay addition. Sonic R did it also, and, unless the levels will—like Unleashed—as a result be made to include many, long, wide, empty stretches and curves, it can make levels more interesting to play, allow you to shave off a few seconds from your record, and make for greater variety in repeated playthroughs.

Get Martin Burke on the phone!

"You may know everything I'm going to do, but I know everything you're going to do. STRANGE, isn't it?!"

yespls

[Dr. BUGMAN]

At this point a third Sonic design seems more likely (maybe even preferred) than Genesis Sonic making a true return. This seems like a one-shot deal, or at least a (semi-)decennial tradition; like retro Cap'n Crunch last year, a marketing gimmick to milk the hopelessly nostalgic.

I prefer the classic model, no doubts about it. But I remember a summer over a decade ago when, on summer vacation, walking into a KB toys and seeing Sonic's new design plastered on the wall, advertising the Dreamcast. While I'd grow tired of this human-proportioned design, there's no denying that it mesmerized me for a time and kept the character fresh.

[Dash]

Yes you can put me in the camp that likes Sonic's post-SA design better,

get out

I'm going to take that as the astonished "whoa, get out!" rather than the hateful "get out of here", so thank you! I am a surprising old school Sonic fan in that way=D

In my animation nerd mind, SEGA was always the WB to Nintendo's Disney, daring to do more edgy art while still adhering to some level of charm and craftsmanship(think back to the old Genesis VS SNES now). So when the SA design came along, it was a natural extension of what I thought Sonic should be. I'm very much with what Esrever said! I'd love for them to mess around with the designs more, but it seems like they are just dumbing down the extremeness of what made the SA design unique in the first place. Both designs are great! I don't know if finding a happy medium between the two is most interesting way to go though.

While I'd grow tired of this human-proportioned design, there's no denying that it mesmerized me for a time and kept the character fresh.

The only time I saw Sonic as human proportioned was Sonic O6, but then again that game did a number of things strangely to say the least. On the positive side, I suppose they DID take some art risks! Weird as Eggman looked as a real human, he was still pretty badass(BTW I dig SA Eggman better than the classic too. I'm banned now right?).

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Maybe "human proportioned" was a poor choice of words. I'm just not fond of the legs converging into a vaguely discernible pelvis. Also: long, droopy spines fly in the face of metal-shearing qualities. I can take or leave the colored irises. But for better or worse, DreamCast Sonic is inexorably tied to that monumental stinker. All the more reason to shake things up again.

[Radrappy]

This mustn’t be! Of course, this is what his anatomy is, but all old artwork of Sonic (save for the ugly Sonic 3D FI renders) has always made sure to conceal this by lowering his head so it merges with the body sphere a little, or by making him look down a little in order for his muzzle to hide the melding point where his neck would be, had he one. They seem to remember this throughout the rest of the trailer, at least.

The context of his head separating from his body in this trailer is what people in animation call an "extreme". It's not uncommon for a character to perform anatomically impossible feats when they hit one of these poses. It's usually something you feel, rather than see. Of course, you being a crazy fan and thus uncommonly alert, have spotted this frame or two of decapitation and have become concerned. So rest assured, I doubt they'll be pulling anything like this regularly. I thought it worked really well though, in terms of animation. It was an interesting way to skirt around the functionality missing from the 90's classic sonic's flat-by-nature design.

Another thing rousing my concern was the part where Modern Sonic drifted, slid, and hopped over small things in his path, all along a linear course. I really hope this is just meant to underline his modern identity and not any indicator for what the gameplay will look like. That said, I actually don’t mind drifting. Considering Sonic’s speeds, it’s a logical mechanic (and much preferable to Sonic Adventure’s “touch the control stick and watch Sonic abruptly run in a 90° angle”-approach) and—unless it’s as badly implemented as in Sonic Colors where you can only drift at certain points making it useless—could be a fun gameplay addition. Sonic R did it also, and, unless the levels will—like Unleashed—as a result be made to include many, long, wide, empty stretches and curves, it can make levels more interesting to play, allow you to shave off a few seconds from your record, and make for greater variety in repeated playthroughs.

This was well written and makes good points that I agree with. You are the same guy who likes 06 right?

But for better or worse, DreamCast Sonic is inexorably tied to that monumental stinker. All the more reason to shake things up again.

Yes, this. 100 times this. To be fair though, they have settled on something with the Unleashed/colors sonic that is an agreeable middle ground between the classic sonic and the man-creature from 06.

[Farmer]

Considering that Sonic flattens out in a cartoon fashion if you boost into a wall in Unleashed, I wouldn't take any speculation regarding his physical structure and anatomy particularly seriously.

[Kogen]

In regards to PPA's analysis, keep this in mind: 'Hyperfocus may also be regarded as a psychiatric diagnosis, as a distraction from reality, when it is considered as a symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder.'

[j-man]

I thought you'd changed, man.

[Rob-Bert]

AUTISMAUTISMAUTISAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISMAUTISM'

Welp, there goes your credibility.

[P.P.A.]

I thought I’ve mentioned it a few times by now that I actually am autistic, as diagnosed by my psychologist! This only works on people who aren’t, Kogen. (Actually,it doesn’t work on anyone, but you get my point.)

[Team Mecha]

Ugh. Please no. Jaleel was fine for AoStH-style Sonic, but I would hate to hear his nasally voice come out of classic Sonic.

Yes, because he totally still sounds like that.

[Kogen]

I thought I’ve mentioned it a few times by now that I actually am autistic, as diagnosed by my psychologist! This only works on people who aren’t, Kogen. (Actually,it doesn’t work on anyone, but you get my point.)

This was my point. You were being criticised for focusing on something normal people would not (the still frame). This is because autistics hyper focus.

Rob-Bert also has autism.

I am trying to clarify the atmosphere here.

[Rob-Bert]

I thought you all doubted my autistm. Either case, at least I didn't focus on something as pointless as that one frame. Radrappy already gave the best explanation for why it looks like that anyway.

[Isuka]

Whatever guys. He's cute as fucking shit. Stamp me on the forehead with "idiot" because I'm totally on board.

See? They have us by the balls. There's no way for this series to ever get its shit straight, the nostalgia factor is simply unbeatably high. One simple teaser and it's back to the fucking hamster wheel.

[Radrappy]

Whatever guys. He's cute as fucking shit. Stamp me on the forehead with "idiot" because I'm totally on board.

See? They have us by the balls. There's no way for this series to ever get its shit straight, the nostalgia factor is simply unbeatably high. One simple teaser and it's back to the fucking hamster wheel.

It's the chase I love.

[FlashTHD]

Whatever guys. He's cute as fucking shit. Stamp me on the forehead with "idiot" because I'm totally on board.

See? They have us by the balls. There's no way for this series to ever get its shit straight, the nostalgia factor is simply unbeatably high. One simple teaser and it's back to the fucking hamster wheel.

It's the chase I love.

I wish your behavior made it easier for me to believe you were being sarcastic.

[Malchik]

I thought I’ve mentioned it a few times by now that I actually am autistic, as diagnosed by my psychologist! This only works on people who aren’t, Kogen. (Actually,it doesn’t work on anyone, but you get my point.)

So are you like "high functioning"? 'Cause I don't know if arranging flowers in an appeasing manner around a naked girl counts for much in the eye's of society.

[Radrappy]

Whatever guys. He's cute as fucking shit. Stamp me on the forehead with "idiot" because I'm totally on board.

See? They have us by the balls. There's no way for this series to ever get its shit straight, the nostalgia factor is simply unbeatably high. One simple teaser and it's back to the fucking hamster wheel.

It's the chase I love.

I wish your behavior made it easier for me to believe you were being sarcastic.

At this point can you blame me for not even knowing myself?

[Delphine]

I thought I’ve mentioned it a few times by now that I actually am autistic, as diagnosed by my psychologist! This only works on people who aren’t, Kogen. (Actually,it doesn’t work on anyone, but you get my point.)

So are you like "high functioning"? 'Cause I don't know if arranging flowers in an appeasing manner around a naked girl counts for much in the eye's of society.

Actually that would explain the flowers + naked girl thing. His brain doesn't make the "uh, this is wrong" connection, just the "yay, this is pretty!" connection.

PPA, I don't recall you mentioning your autism. Although if you did so during your "autism is just a mean label!" post I didn't notice, because I was too busy thinking that my brother's autism isn't a label, it's the reason his damn brain doesn't work right.