Sega announces Sonic & SEGA All-Star Racing

[Opa-Opa]

I finally played the demo today and had lots of fun too. The AI is a bit hard though.

I was kind of expecting at least one track for each character, It's a bit disappointing that it's just Sonic, Jet Set Radio, Sonic, Super Monkey Ball, Sonic, House of the Dead and Samba de Amigo and Sonic. I was really expecting to see Plaleaf or any other Fantasy Zone level as a track in glorious 3D, or something from Alex Kidd's world or a retro sci-fi track based on Space Channel 5. Unfortunately the name of the game is SONIC and Sega All Star... Oh well, can't have everything.

[Esrever]

I don't have a problem with nine Sonic tracks. I can even understand why those nine tracks had to be set in three standard environments.

But man, if three is all you can do... why on earth would you pick all of them from Sonic Heroes? Sonic flippin' Heroes! Not the most recent games. Not the classics that everyone loves. Nine entire tracks from a game from 2003!

[Opa-Opa]

Yeah, that IS pretty weird. I wouldn't mind if they threw in some Mystic Cave or Sky Sanctuary Zone in there.

[Blank]

Yeah the Heroes tracks were just an odd choice. They were pretty big and easy to replicate because of their already flat roadway designs I guess.

Played the Wii version at a friends house, and was pretty surprised to see that the game looks pretty similar to its HD counterparts just without the fancy lighting effects and such. Framerate drops were pretty common, but not enough to ruin the experience.

I actually like how the items are just good enough and not too gamebreaking besides the all-star move. I do think the variety could've been better with them though. Wheres the JSR spraypaint cans? I also turned up the music like most people here it seems, it was just too quiet.

Overall its a fun game that I enjoyed more then Mario Kart, but has a lot of room for improvement. Specifically with the tracks, as pretty as they are.

[Kogen]

Apparently SEGA executives were really faggots about this game and demanded no Genesis music (that is bad and old!), Sonic Heroes stuff only (that is popular and making new textures is expensive!), only kiddy characters (this has to appeal to families who never played a SEGA game before!), and so on.

Primary research on what to add to the game also involves asking random toddlers with big flash cards about which things to add - like characters. So a person dumber than your average chimp (literally) decided a lot of the game's IPs.

[Shadow Hog]

Apparently SEGA executives were really faggots about this game and demanded ... Sonic Heroes stuff only (that is popular...!)

It is?

[Radrappy]

Apparently SEGA executives were really faggots about this game and demanded ... Sonic Heroes stuff only (that is popular...!)

It is?

If we're going by worldwide sales at this point, yes.

[Kogen]

Well the Mac Donalds here replaced their toy room with Sonic Heroes cabinets. I do not think the Mac Donalds would use unpopular games.

[Dash]

Heroes is also the game with the best median art style; New enough to be part of the post SA games and retro-looking enough to make casual older fans happy. I can see their reasoning. Even so, when a Winter Olympic game provides a broader spectrum of Sonic fan service than a game that should be a Sega Smash Bros. of kart racing, something is a bit strange.

[Kogen]

Heroes is also the game with the best median art style; New enough to be part of the post SA games and retro-looking enough to make casual older fans happy. I can see their reasoning. Even so, when a Winter Olympic game provides a broader spectrum of Sonic fan service than a game that should be a Sega Smash Bros. of kart racing, something is a bit strange.

Well the game exists to be sold to 'casual families', not people who play SEGA games.

[FlashTHD]

Heroes is also the game with the best median art style; New enough to be part of the post SA games and retro-looking enough to make casual older fans happy. I can see their reasoning. Even so, when a Winter Olympic game provides a broader spectrum of Sonic fan service than a game that should be a Sega Smash Bros. of kart racing, something is a bit strange.

Well the game exists to be sold to 'casual families', not people who play SEGA games.

Like "casual families" will know who the hell Opa-Opa is, and so were the Olympics games which are selling staggering numbers.

[Kogen]

Heroes is also the game with the best median art style; New enough to be part of the post SA games and retro-looking enough to make casual older fans happy. I can see their reasoning. Even so, when a Winter Olympic game provides a broader spectrum of Sonic fan service than a game that should be a Sega Smash Bros. of kart racing, something is a bit strange.

Well the game exists to be sold to 'casual families', not people who play SEGA games.

Like "casual families" will know who the hell Opa-Opa is, and so were the Olympics games which are selling staggering numbers.

I'm Opa-Opa, who the hell are you?!

I am just saying that SEGA management was very restrictive on the IP-use in the game. They only allowed stuff they assumed would attract random kids/parents. Sumo apparently had much better stuff they would have added if allowed to do so.

What this has to do with a game developed on another continent by another team, I know not.

[Dash]

Nothing really. Just that the Olympic games had some stages ranging from S&K's Sky Sanctuary to SA2's Radical Highway, and even had a "Sonic on Ice" segment that had references to many games in the franchise, which is honestly more than I expected them to do with such a game. All-Stars Racing on the other hand is built for this kind of thing, but Sumo didn't really get to go all out. I guess the only point here is that SEGA management is being sensible, but kind of lame!

[Neo]

S&K's Sky Sanctuary

Wait, what?

[Neo]

Okay, apparently there's a level called "Sky Gardens" which has nothing at all to do with Sky Sanctuary, but does play the stage's tune.

So basically, they can rehash any stage from Sonic Adventure onwards, but concerning classic games, they either use Green Hill Zone or just make stuff up.

Egg Lavapolis Zone!

[Shadow Hog]

That would be the best stage ever

[K2J]

So basically, they can rehash any stage from Sonic Adventure onwards, but concerning classic games, they either use Green Hill Zone or just make stuff up.

Blue Ridge Zone!

[Brazillian Cara]

Jade Hill Zone.

[gr4yJ4Y]

I think they've withheld doing 3D references of old 2D levels because bringing them into 3D would require too much creative direction for Sumo.

Maybe Sega will let them do it for a sequel.

[Yami CJMErl]

It can't be THAT hard, though--what about the SA2 and Brawl iterations of Green Hill?

[G.Silver]

Sumo also did a pretty decent GHZ in Sega Smash Tennis or whatever that was. The Sonic levels really lend themselves to 3D pretty well (the visual style is certainly not the reason level design in 3D has been difficult to get right).

[Opa-Opa]

I think it's just laziness. I agree that Sonic Heroes does cover most of the spectrum of the Sonic zones but they could at least have had new tunes for the levels.

Apparently there's some Whale Lagoon level that's probably from Sonic 2k6.

I just think they should have one for each character, that would be the logical thing to do. There's like 6 or 7 Sonic characters anyway.

[gr4yJ4Y]

The Sonic levels really lend themselves to 3D pretty well (the visual style is certainly not the reason level design in 3D has been difficult to get right).

-_-

Nonetheless, if you already have 3D models for a level, there's that much less work to do on updating the graphics, right?

Like other people have been saying, of the somewhat more recent (that is, in the last 10 years) 3D Sonic games, Heroes has a more traditionally Sonic art style.

[P.P.A.]

Apparently there's some Whale Lagoon level that's probably from Sonic 2k6.

Why did they pick the most generic, boring, and soulless stage in all of Sonic 06? They could have taken Kingdom Valley instead, Crisis City, or Aquatic Base, these would have made for neat racing courses!

[Radrappy]

Apparently there's some Whale Lagoon level that's probably from Sonic 2k6.

Why did they pick the most generic, boring, and soulless stage in all of Sonic 06? They could have taken Kingdom Valley instead, Crisis City, or Aquatic Base, these would have made for neat racing courses!

those were all equally soulless. How is that you manage to bring up how much you like Sonic 06 in practically EVERY fucking topic? It definitely deserves some kind of award.