The GHZ Forum

The latest issue of UK magazine Gamesmaster features an in-depth preview of the new Sonic the Hedgehog game, including a brief interview with Takashi Iizukia. A number of interesting facts are embedded within the article’s garish hyperactive layout.

Firstly, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Dr Eggman play a pivotal role in the story. In true Sonic tradition, both Eggman and the blue hedgehog are searching for the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow also desires the gems and players can decide which characters Shadow collaborates with to retrieve the Emeralds.

Secondly, while the gun is an integral part of the gameplay, it is only one of the weapons available. As the game progresses, Shadow develops his mastery of Chaos energy allowing him to slow down enemies and rewind time, in addition to the Chaos explosions witnessed in the trailers. Shadow can also steal weapons both from GUN and a mystery alien race who, in adhering to another story telling cliché, are planning to annihilate life on Earth.

Finally, Iizukia is fully aware of the mysteries Shadow has generated and aims to use this new game to “perhaps reveal the answers to those questionsâ€￾.

Download scans direct from the GHZ Newsboard:

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So, Blinx like time manipulation and chaos energy. Looks a little better.

Have they even announced a console for this yet?

All three, snotnozzle.

The preview makes the game sound a little more promising but it will probably still turn out to be shit.

1) Stopping time for a few seconds is one thing, but reversing it is too powerful. The whole concept of Chaos Control has been getting out of hand. I mean, shattering the planet in Advance 3 isn't bad enough?

2) I thought they were moving away from story ambiguity. Not only will there be multiple endings, but we're changing his past?

3) Random, pointless aliens.

Aside from those...I must say I'm becoming less averse to this. If even half of the self praise Sonic Team's spouting about better level design and story is true, I might just look past the concept rape and enjoy this. I've got...hope again. Damnit.

I'll allow myself to have hope when I play the game and it's good.

Takashi Iizukia wrote:Shadow is a character that has been and will continue to be a part of the Sonic world and we do not want to alienate the many fans of the franchise.

Too late.

Frieza they patted themselves on the back about Heroes as well. So when I read that, I lost hope.

I think I've pretty much lost hope in this game.

chriscaffee wrote:Frieza they patted themselves on the back about Heroes as well. So when I read that, I lost hope.

But it has guns, so shouldn't you like it? LOL MIRITE????////

Cripes, you people are like broken records. Meh, whatever gets your point across. In this situation, hope is only how you make of it really. If you keep expecting dissapointment, chances are you get it. This isn't the darkest hour or the beginning of the end, it's the industry. If Sonic Team wants to try something new, let them. We shouldn't guilt them by using the classic Sonic games as examples of their former glory. It's ludacris. And besides, we cannot judge Sonic's progress just because Sonic Heroes dissapointed you and everything. If you think about it, it's unbelievable how a couple of games can greatly contradict Sonic's previous accomplisments nowadays.

Professor Machenstein wrote:It's ludacris.

?

Professor Machenstein wrote: In this situation, hope is only how you make of it really. If you keep expecting dissapointment, chances are you get .

Not really. The only way Shadow the Hedgehog will be good is if we approach it with extremely low expectations. If you expect diarehhia and end up with a solid turd, then you won't be disappointed. So if we expect this game to be LAAAAAAAAAAME and it just ends up plain sucking, then we'll be able to cope with it better.

Professor Machenstein wrote: We shouldn't guilt them by using the classic Sonic games as examples of their former glory. It's ludacris. And besides, we cannot judge Sonic's progress just because Sonic Heroes dissapointed you and everything. If you think about it, it's unbelievable how a couple of games can greatly contradict Sonic's previous accomplisments nowadays.

It's not just Sonic Heroes that was disappointing-- Every console game that Sonic Team has released since the DC's death has either been a port (SA:DX, PSO), mediocre but completely forgettable (Billy Hatcher, PSO 3) or just complete garbage (Sonic Heroes). It's not that we're faulting them for trying something new, it's just that every new idea they have is just plain stupid.

Sonic Team is kind of like an abusive husband-- Early in the relationship, he wowed us with his talent, his skill, and his artistic integrity. Now, all he does is say "Things'll get better baby", but then he beats me with a golf club when he gets home from work.

Damn, I should stop watching Lifetime.

Sigh. Look. I want a Sonic craze too. When Sonic was famous back in the early 90's, I was just a drooling toddler with barely any self-awareness, whereas you adults got to embrace that era as a full memory. This transition as a third party company has not been pretty, but I'm confident SEGA will make good games again. This is just a depressing transition phase. I just want to have a moment where we all can enjoy Sonic again, even if it's just a month or even a week. I just want to witness the glory days as a presence.

I actually think it looks all right.

One of us here is a potential SEGA employee, and the reason times change is because nobody does something about it. The modern developers at SEGA probably don't know what we desire, so it's up to one of us to take action. Unfortunetly, I'm not old enough, some of us don't care, and most of us are probably already employed somewhere else. There has to be a way to get a Sonic craze again. I see Sonic Team as a prosperous group of developers, and I will never quit until our fanbase is happy and the Sonic name gets the treatment it deserves, despite of past tragities.

chriscaffee wrote:Frieza they patted themselves on the back about Heroes as well. So when I read that, I lost hope.

Yes, I have no regard for their promises or those of any game company because nobody releases a game that they genuinely believe is bad. The reason I have hope is because, if it weren't for the gun, the 3 things I listed, and every game since Advance 2...and the fact that it's a Shadow game, with all that suggests about their target audience, taking into account their total lack of creative integrity...well, there it goes. My frail hope has collapses on itself into a vortex of disdain. Oh well. However it turns out, I can look forward to either a surprisingly good game or to the humorous topics that will surely follow.

Professor Machenstein wrote:One of us here is a potential SEGA employee, and the reason times change is because nobody does something about it. The modern developers at SEGA probably don't know what we desire, so it's up to one of us to take action. Unfortunately, I'm not old enough, some of us don't care, and most of us are probably already employed somewhere else. There has to be a way to get a Sonic craze again. I see Sonic Team as a prosperous group of developers, and I will never quit my lusting until our fanbase is happy and Sonic is on Extra, or the news, or X-Play, or something, I don't know! I am unquenched!

I don't think it's that Sonic Team doesn't know what our fanbase wants. I think it's that they're targeting the audience that will yield the largest profit. Yuji Naka himself has said that he cares more about making money than making good games. And your hopes are way too high. Even if Sonic Team hired 10 of us, we'd hardly make a difference in that massive collection of uninfluential artists and programmers. Nothing short of fire will cleanse this. Firing Iizukia and half the team, that is, and replacing them with people who have some artistic integrity. And I don't think any of us are looking for Sonic to make the news; we just want good games.

Ultimately I reserve judgment, as I'm sure most of us do. It's just fun to complain.

Yuji Naka himself has said that he cares more about making money than making good games.

Where did he say that? O.O

And I don't think any of us are looking for Sonic to make the news; we just want good games.

I didn't mean Sonic being on the national news or anything, but fair enough. I don't know what your definition of good is these days. Does it mean great? Beyond the ordinary? Divine? To me, good just means good.

It's just fun to complain.

*Chuckles* Of course it is. That's what makes comedy. However, if you're complaining just for personal attacking, then there's no HE-HA about that now, is there.

And your hopes are way too high. Even if Sonic Team hired 10 of us, we'd hardly make a difference in that massive collection of uninfluential artists and programmers. Nothing short of fire will cleanse this. Firing Iizukia and half the team, that is, and replacing them with people who have some artistic integrity.

Artisic, eh? Now that's something to agree on. Sonic games need to be more artistic. Sonic Heroes almost had it, but nobody likes the forest and haunted mansion levels. The Shadow game looks kind of gritty, with deserts and the whole green and dirt brown going on there.
However, if there was once artistic employee at SEGA, that one person can influence the whole entire band of members with his or her unique conceptions. This I'm not sure of either, but one thing can effect the other, you know.

My main concern is toward the question if there will be a Sonic 2K5 or not. Shadow the Hedgehog shouldn't be the only 128-BIT Sonic-related title to come out this year. It's nerve-wrecking, yes. We can both agree that we need more Sonic, and not any other character... But we need Eggman too.

Professor Machenstein wrote:One of us here is a potential SEGA employee,

And who is that?

You, CE. You.

CE wrote:

Professor Machenstein wrote:One of us here is a potential SEGA employee,

And who is that?

Er, just one of us. You, me, someone else here, anyone. I dream of developing games with those at SEGA. If not SEGA, then I'll develop games elsewhere.

1) Stopping time for a few seconds is one thing, but reversing it is too powerful.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Professor Machenstein wrote:I don't know what your definition of good is these days.

My standards are just higher than yours, I guess.

Professor Machenstein wrote:Artisic, eh? Now that's something to agree on. Sonic games need to be more artistic. Sonic Heroes almost had it, but nobody likes the forest and haunted mansion levels. The Shadow game looks kind of gritty, with deserts and the whole green and dirt brown going on there.

I wasn't referring specifically to visual art. I meant art in an all encompassing sense: visual, musical, literary, all that good stuff.

Zeta wrote:

1) Stopping time for a few seconds is one thing, but reversing it is too powerful.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

I didn't mean it'd make gameplay too easy, I meant it destroys story integrity. If anything happens Shadow can just reverse time a few seconds, so he'll never handle a situation incorrectly (a short one, anyway).

Before I posted last time, I'd overlooked the interview on page 4. Now my vortex of disdain has become a nova of arsonistic rage. That'll calm down by tomorrow though, and I'll go back to disdain and eventually apathy.