New Sonic game for 2015

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Malchik
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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Malchik »

This is the future you chose, Sonic fans. And everyone of you who buys this game despite how awful it looks, you're just perpetuating the problem.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by cjmcray »

Holic, I think you're overreacting. Eserver already said it's not as bad as '06.

I've finished watching all of the cutscenes on YouTube, and I have to say, I really liked the storyline. It was far better than the terrible cutscenes we were subjected to with Colors, Generations and Lost World. Characters interacted well. The villain this time wasn't a complete joke and posed an actual threat. (Though he had the same goal and ambitions as Eggman, which makes you wonder why he was even created in the first place)

Sonic: What happened to Metal?

Knuckles: Let's just say we won't be seeing HIM again! ...uh, unless he comes back.

:lol:

..What? I thought it was funny. It was nice to see the group argue for once during the scene in the tomb.

Music was less butt-rock and more like an orchestra. It really helped set the scene. It was dark and forboding when Sonic accidentally set Lyric loose, And intense and climatic when Sonic -almost- died, then got back up to battle Lyric There were times that the camera angles and music helped it feel like a movie (too bad for the shitty graphics)

I actually got enjoyment out of combat-heavy games like Unleashed and team-based stuff like Heroes, so I think I might have fun with this game. (Don't own a Wii-U though) Only issue I had with the story was Shadow showing up randomly, but I think we can blame Sega for that one, not BRB.

I just wish it had the graphical quality of Generations or Lost World. But this isn't a Sonic Team game, it's from a new studio, so that might explain things.

I want to see this game succeed, because:

a) I love the cartoon series, and don't want the games negative reception to affect the show.

b) it will further perpetuate the stereotype that Sonic's shitty friends are what ruin Sonic games. Sonic games suck due to the incompetence of the developers, and Sega's rush to get it out-the-door by Christmas. I'm sick of being forced to only play as Sonic. We finally got a game in almost ten years where we can play as Tails, Knuckles and Amy again.

c) I'm a Sonic fan. I love the character, I want to see him succeed. it sucks to see him get ripped on by so many gaming critics. Unleashed (360/PS3 versions) did not deserve the negative backlash it got, and Heroes was a decent game (except for the shitty storyline) loved the Adventure series, too. The only true offenders in my book are Shadow the Hedgehog and '06. (Well there's the Wii storybook games and Chronicles, but I haven't played those) With the new TV series, upcoming movie and merchandising campaigns, I'm a happy little Sonic fan. I don't want the failure of this initiative to send Sonic into obscurity.

4) I don't want to go back to Generations/Colors style storytelling. :shock:

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Rob-Bert »

why do we need a competent villain, this is a game about a cartoon blue hedgehog, you're a fanboy, blahblahblah yaddayaddayadda not repeating everything i already said before k thx bye

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Segaholic2 »

cjmcray wrote:Holic, I think you're overreacting. Eserver already said it's not as bad as '06.
Read what you just wrote. If that isn't the dictionary definition of "damning with the fucking faintest of all praise" then I don't know what is.

This game is, by almost universal accounts, shit. You idiots giving them money for it are perpetuating the problem, as Malchik said. Damn you! Damn you all to hell!!

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by big_smile »

c) I'm a Sonic fan. I love the character, I want to see him succeed. it sucks to see him get ripped on by so many gaming critics. Unleashed (360/PS3 versions) did not deserve the negative backlash it got, and Heroes was a decent game (except for the shitty storyline) loved the Adventure series, too. The only true offenders in my book are Shadow the Hedgehog and '06. (Well there's the Wii storybook games and Chronicles, but I haven't played those) With the new TV series, upcoming movie and merchandising campaigns, I'm a happy little Sonic fan. I don't want the failure of this initiative to send Sonic into obscurity.
I love Sonic and I want him to succeed. But I want him to succeed because Sega have made a genuinely fun game and not another exercise in "design-by-the-marketing department".

The gaming press are too lenient with Sonic. Games like Sonic Unleashed deserve scores of under 3/10, because the concepts are so poor that they shouldn't even exist in the first place.
I don't really have much sympathy for the Boom team, as the problems with the Sonic franchise have been obvious for years and instead of fixing them, they've just gone on to repeat them.

For a while, memes like the "Sonic cycle" and "Sonic's New friend" were so strong that the Sonic brand had become toxic. I think this forced Sega to take more care, which is why we got titles like Colors and Generations. But it seems the affection these titles generated has caused Sega to revert back to their old ways, which is depressing (especially as Colors and Generations weren't without their problems). Hopefully Boom will be a significant flop and Sega will re-realise that making a Sonic game involves more than having a big features list.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Radrappy »

Seriously. Colors/Generations felt like that hopeful moment when your grandmother with Alzheimer's remembered your name. I honestly don't see how this franchise can keep going under the current leadership when they simply don't understand what made the original titles great. Not one fucking bit.

There is no way the series can succeed under the direction of the same man who brought us Shadow the Hedgehog.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Segaholic2 »

I agree with the above two posters on pretty much every point.

Just kidding, I changed my mind. The whole franchise's existence has been validated by this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJNgZymZX_M

Thank you, Sonic Boom.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by P.P.A. »

I have completely given up on Sonic. The series has been directionless since the end of the Mega Drive era. Sonic Adventure and SA2 were at least (mostly) fun by virtue of being well-made, but since then, the quality has only dropped (Oshima, Yasuhara, and Naka all leaving the company didn't help), exposing how hollow a series Sonic has become. Besides the characters, there is nothing that defines modern Sonic games, that ties them together—no overarching aesthetics, no characteristic gameplay.

Ever since Heroes, SEGA has been desperately trying to make Sonic work somehow, passing the series around to different developers, experimenting with radically different art styles and gameplay. But they've squandered any good ideas they might have had, either thanks to lousy execution, or by packaging them with a bunch of decidedly terrible ideas—condemning them to be dropped like a hot potato in response to the inevitable torrent of negative feedback. Faint rays of hope like Colors of Generations are meaningless, because instead of being used to build up a solid foundation for future games, SEGA rather runs them into the ground immediately, and starts all over again.

That this once beloved video game icon now persists in the minds of internet users only in the form of purposely terrible memes (sanic, Coldsteel the Hedgehog, Tails Gets Trolled, etc.) is reflective of the sad state of the franchise. It's the laughing stock of the industry; a dead, stinking, rotting horse, and SEGA charges ever new generations of autistic teenagers to keep beating it.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw another decent—maybe even good—Sonic game someday, but it could not salvage the franchise. Nothing can.


Image

Also, some new glitches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3gpRHPuifg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VDK8hX5HI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dypbu7N6QZI

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Malchik
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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Malchik »

It's inevitable for a company to run a franchise into the ground when it's only known for one franchise. At least Nintendo can stick to releasing one Mario game per console. And I hope they do stick to this mind set becasue it gives a team lots of time to make a decent game (Sega often releases several Sonic games per console(s)). Of course this is only possible when a company has a shelf full of beloved franchises to dust off to keep the business going. Sega doesn't have this luxury. And even Nintendo are capable of handing over their IPs to shitty developers such as Sega does with Sonic from time to time.

...Also Nintendo is sinking becasue they insist on releasing video game consoles instead of low end PCs for people who don't like upgrading.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Popcorn »

Sonic sucks, you idiots.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by cjmcray »

Rob-Bert wrote:why do we need a competent villain, this is a game about a cartoon blue hedgehog, you're a fanboy, blahblahblah yaddayaddayadda not repeating everything i already said before k thx bye
Because Eggman used to be one? Clearly you and I have different ideas on what Sonic is "supposed" to be, so instead of bringing up that discussion we had in the New Sonic Adventure Album thread, let's just agree to disagree on this.

Also, aren't we all Sonic fans here? (Or used to be, anyway?)
Segaholic2 wrote:
cjmcray wrote:Holic, I think you're overreacting. Eserver already said it's not as bad as '06.
Read what you just wrote. If that isn't the dictionary definition of "damning with the fucking faintest of all praise" then I don't know what is.

This game is, by almost universal accounts, shit. You idiots giving them money for it are perpetuating the problem, as Malchik said. Damn you! Damn you all to hell!!
Well Sega isn't really getting any money from me on this whole thing. I don't own a Wii-U. Just sayin' the story was alright.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Malchik »

You know, Sonic is like Star Wars - it had three great titles, a couple good spin-offs and a boatload of horseshit. And the fan base still laps it up.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Rob-Bert »

I'm a Sonic fan inasmuch as I like Sonic the Hedgehog, a big chunk of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic CD in theory, a small bit of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, AoStH, and SatAM. Everything else has fallen beneath my line of sight as I've gotten older, largely due to learning a lot more about the world and how to make a quality creative product in general.

And no, a "competent villain" isn't the cornerstone of a good game. Your priorities are on backwards, cjm. Also, I'm pretty sure Oshima intended Eggman to be a massive doofus since the beginning.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by cjmcray »

Rob-Bert wrote:Also, I'm pretty sure Oshima intended Eggman to be a massive doofus since the beginning.
I always got the impression from the Genesis games that Eggman was a pretty sinister guy, wanting to basically turn the entire world into Scrap Brain Zone and make everyone his robot slave. (It doesn't make sense for Eggman to be so stupid when he's ingenious enough to build advanced robotics and gigantic warships) Adventure 2 showed him as a competent guy, who got the job done on his own, yet the game still showed some of his quirky characteristics. It wasn't until Heroes that he started to become a complete goofball.

Also, changing his name to "Dr. Robotnik" made him a bit more intimidating in a comic-book villain sort of way.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Radrappy »

cjmcray wrote:It wasn't until Heroes that he started to become a complete goofball.
Image
Image
Image

In your defense, the american box art tried its best to completely undermine the obvious intention of the original artwork.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Rob-Bert »

cjmcray wrote:It doesn't make sense for Eggman to be so stupid when he's ingenious enough to build advanced robotics and gigantic warships
VIDEO GAME SERIES ABOUT A BLUE CARTOON HEDGEHOG WITH BIG FLOPPY RED SHOES WHO RUNS OVER HILLS WITH CHECKERBOARD PATTERNS ON THEM AND COLLECTS FLOATING GOLD RINGS WHILE SMASHING UP NEON COLORED GOOGLY EYED ROBOTS.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by cjmcray »

As I said before, agree to disagree. I interpreted the games differently.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Wombatwarlord777 »

Well, looks like this raging fever dream is finally over.

At the very least, I can continue to look forward towards Sega Sammy's newest pachinko machine releases.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Yami CJMErl »

Or whatever Sonic Team decides to do for 2016 (very broadly assuming nothing new is released on consoles in 2015, that is). Right now, the only Sonic-related thing I'm genuinely looking forward to is the Sonic amiibo in February.

Remind me what the general consensus on the actual TV show is? So far my conclusion is that the games are shit, but the cartoon is a bit more serviceable.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Rob-Bert »

I legitimately laughed my ass off at the cartoon, but people on Sonic Retro were less than enthusiastic about it. Maybe my standards are just low.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Esrever »

I think it depends on your sense of humour? For me, it has that rapid, hit-you-over-the-head overwritten quality shared by a lot of other overly scripty modern cartoons, and I found it kind of grating. Maybe they are still feeling it out, though. I thought the first episode made it work a lot better than the second, which was just TOO MUCH.

Honestly, I think the Wii U game is written better than the show. I like the tone and characterization of the cast in the game a lot -- which is not really the same as the cartoon, strangely -- especially Sonic and Knuckles, who have a great competitive relationship that feels appropriately half-way between pure friendship and pure rivalry. I also enjoy the way that the team clearly don't think of Sonic as their leader and give him a hard time for his cocky BS. It makes both them and him more likeable.

The characters never shut up during the actual gameplay, exclaiming something during even the most incidental moments... "bounce pad!"... but in the cut scenes they come across really well. And the comedy adventure tone of the game's story, however slight, feels way more suited to Sonic than the sitcom vibe of the show. (It's also clear that, for whatever reason, the game's story was massively gutted at some point and was clearly meant to be more epic and era-spanning than what wound up in the game.)

Anyhow, long story short, it would probably have been best if the show had the game story and setting, and the game had just not been a game at all.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Malchik »

I'm seeing a lot of deluded Sonic fans expressing their confidence in Sega patching this game after release. I think the fact Sega is releasing this game in it's unfinished state tells us they are already at a financial loss and will put no more time and money into post development improvements.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by G.Silver »

Well, specifically it tells us that they don't think they'd see a return on continued work on it. They know people will buy it anyway, and that the people on the fence about it aren't significant.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Frieza2000 »

Ah, to be young and harrow at the blooms of debris spewing from a Sonic trainwreck again! Live these days to the fullest young ones, for someday the apathy shall come for thy soul too.
G.Silver wrote:Well, specifically it tells us that they don't think they'd see a return on continued work on it. They know people will buy it anyway, and that the people on the fence about it aren't significant.
Recall, though, that this game is just the beginning of what SoA hopes will be a series or at least a limited saga. They put a lot of time and money into this rebranding and they're probably not going to abandon it so quickly. Months ago I mused that if we got 2 episodes of Sonic 4 they'd probably give us at least as many of these whether they do well or not. So if SoJ doesn't step in and put this out of its misery then it might be in their interest to try to make it look a little less embarrassing. On the other hand, using the same Sonic 4 example, they could just have a big marketing campaign about having learned their lesson and promise the next episode will be totally different.

Speaking of SoJ, I bet Iizuka and co. are quietly raising a toast of schadenfreude at the office this week. One can hope they'll take this as an opportunity to show up the Americans and put in the extra work needed to make their next project shine, rather than deciding they've got nothing to prove, getting drunk, and releasing another Olympics game.

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Re: New Sonic game for 2015

Post by Wombatwarlord777 »

I honestly wish they'd just put more development time into each game. Sonic is overexposed as it is because it's SEGA's only viable cash cow left. Actually, if they'd put effort into reviving Nights, Jet Grind Radio, etc. with good games, I wouldn't mind that either. It's a shame "Journey of Dreams" didn't encourage the company to play more with its existing IPs.
Malchik wrote:I'm seeing a lot of deluded Sonic fans expressing their confidence in Sega patching this game after release. I think the fact Sega is releasing this game in it's unfinished state tells us they are already at a financial loss and will put no more time and money into post development improvements.
Speaking of which, assuming it's true that the total cost of Sonic Boom Wii U was the US $20 million SEGA reportedly gave to Red Button and that their sales forecasts for that game are accurate at 300,000 units, then it means that they'd have to charge... $67 per copy just to break even. Everywhere I see this game being sold, its (retail) cost is $50. So that's a total loss of at least $5,000,000, and almost certainly more.

Of course, this isn't counting complicating factors like shipping, advertising, any profit the cartoon or 3DS game might churn up, or the sale of merchandise like action figures. Speaking of which, is there any news about those at all?

On the subject of the cartoon's writing, it's worlds better than the game's in my opinion, mainly because of the lack of inane "Heroes" chatter that's not at all entertaining. My main concern with it is at least personally, I can only stand so much snark from Sonic and Eggman in one sitting before it gets grating. But since only two new 11-minute episodes are released each week and that each episode so far has also had good action sequences as well, I really don't think this is going to be a problem.

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