The GHZ Forum

Depends on which studio. I'd probably say Ubisoft Montreal would be the best of their studios, but none of their games really involve any speed. The platforming elements of Beyond Good and Evil and Prince of Persia were great though.

You have to start somewhere, with a solid foundation in platforming speed could easily be worked in. (I think)

FlashTHD wrote:

I don't want them to make another 2-D Sonic game. I feel they touched all the possible places they could in Sonic 1-3, Knuckles, & CD. And I don't see how going back to 2-D would add anything...you have a limited scope in 2-D gameplay-wise.

Not if you model the levels in 3D and get creative.

Honestly, aside from better graphics, bigger levels, and more music and sound effects of better quality, what could they really add?

You forgot "more inventive levels". And more levels in general.

I would like to see one more really good 2D Sonic on consoles, but who was it here that said he'd rather play a crappy 3D game and know things are moving forward than a crappy 2D game and know that things aren't?

More inventive levels is definitely what they need. I would give just about anything for another Sonic game with levels like those in Sonic CD, and if they kept it in 2-D, then the advances that could be made in graphics, size, music, and sound effects would be staggering. Modeling the levels in 3-D always bugged me, but I suppose it would be better than the crap they've been putting out lately.

And I'd rather many more really good 2-D Sonic games than one, but I'd also like to see Sonic 1, 2, 3, K, and CD in 3-D (ala Green Hill in SA2).

I've always kind of thought a free-roaming Sonic game would be awesome ever since the first Jak & Daxter game came out.

Totally agree with retro studios - they came to my mind as well. Alternatively, keeping it in sega Amusement Vision, as i honestly felt that some of the style and music of the levels in that game could've easily fitted a sonic game.

The sonic series is going on a horrible downhill slope, it used to be my favourite series, but now the plot, the characters and even the designs of the "badniks" themselves has gone haywire. Sonic Adventure 1 was a good atempt into the 3D realm especially for '98, i'm just fed-up with all the crap new features they keep including in the new ones. Sonic Adventure 1 was fairly simple - and it worked, and fitted in the sonic universe.

I just cannot understand how all the recent games have gone so damn wrong! If i can see in my head how i would imagine a good 3d sonic game to be - why cant sega?

So my vote would go to either:

Retro Studios or Amusement Vision Simply becuase i think they would have the capability of creating an approriate style and design for levels, keep the mechanics smooth simple and tight, and have the creativity to make original levels with appropriate use of colour.

Gaz wrote:I disagree with that. Sonic Rush is the best Sonic game to be released post Sonic & Knuckles and it's a side-scrolling game(albiet with 3-D graphics). I think one of the reasons why it worked was because it didn't try to stay to close to the formula of the original Genesis games and actually adds a few new elements that generally work quite well. I still think there is potential for side-scrolling games but I admit there are limits in comparison with full 3-D games.

Anyhow, on the main topic I think Sega should get another team to handle development of the Sonic series but I'm not sure who. There still seems to be a few talented developers working at Sega and I'm sure if they tried they could put together a new team who could do a better job with the Sonic series but I guess as long Sonic Team's games continue to sell well it doesn't really matter to them.

Disagree quite a lot with that. I didn't feel sonic rush was very inventive, the level design wasn't challenging or interesting but rather linear. i think the best they've done in 2d post Sonic and knuckles is sonic advance 3. The character pairing system was genius wasn't flawed and it worked well. Obviously level design couldn't be exactly the same as the originals, but it was an entertaining game with a simple plot that introduced an intruging new robot. the only thing i didn't like was the level hub :), but even then it wasn't too bad.

The main thing i can see being left out of the recent sonic games is actual platforming elements. Playing new Supermario bros recently in some parts actually reminded me of what sonic games used to be or should be like. General platforming elements seem to be excluded from recent sonic games to allow for blazing speed, which i don't feel is nessecary.

Sonic Advance 3 was terrible, I thought. The partner system was useless as hell ("Let's strip down these characters of basic moves, if only to force you to team up with other characters to get them back!") with EXTREMELY poor AI. The only time you ever saw your partner was if you were going really slow or if you needed to use their team-up manuver.

Level design was cramped, hap-hazard, and plodding. Your acceleration was based far more heavily on ring-count than it was in Sonic Advance 1 or 2, making Sonic feel TOO slow at first. Since the level design was cheaper than ever (with plenty of spike pits), it was extremely difficult to hang on to those rings, too.

And then you've got ugly graphics (Sunset Hill is horrible, the worst-looking Sonic stage ever, with Twinkle Snow coming up second) and forgettable music.

Toy Kingdom was far uglier than Twinkle Snow. Twinkle Snow doesn't bother me that much compared to Toy Kingdom and Sunset Hill, wits its very hideous trees.

I thought the level design was better in Advance 3 than 1 or especially 2, but not by much. Those spikes seemed to be everywhere. Getting Chaos Emeralds was a chore, bosses are either really easy or really hard, and most of the team=up moves are pointless and not really helpful at all. About the only good thing I can say about it is that it had some decent music.

I'd say that Advance 3 ties with Advance 2 in terms of poor level design; the only serious advantages are 1) it's much easier to get chaos emeralds and 2) no more running bosses. Advance 3's best feature was probably the creativity of the levels, not necessarily how good they were. Chaos Angel and Ocean Base are more creative than everything in Advance 2 combined, except for Techno Base.

But in terms of playability, music, and nostalgia...Advance 1 by a landslide. I'd even go so far as to say that Casino Paradise is the best incarnation of the "party" stage to date.