IGN rerating all Dreamcast games... for some reason.

Omni Hunter · Post by **Omni Hunter** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:38 am

That would have been pretty schnazzy, just going around different levels as Sonic and co. charging up jumps and pulling off kerr-azy stunts to get to areas. I could even imagine Sonic ready to tag something with a spray-can in hand.

Not original, I know, but it sounds even more "back-to-the-roots" than what's coming up, especially when considering the theme of exploration.

jenkins · Post by **jenkins** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 12:28 pm

Omni Hunter wrote:That would have been pretty schnazzy, just going around different levels as Sonic and co. charging up jumps and pulling off kerr-azy stunts to get to areas. I could even imagine Sonic ready to tag something with a spray-can in hand.

Not original, I know, but it sounds even more "back-to-the-roots" than what's coming up, especially when considering the theme of exploration.

So exploration is one of the most important things in a Sonic game? Sounds correct, I hadn't really pinned that aspect down yet. I don't suppose we can just ask Sega to make their upcoming Sonic games simply have levels which are "better to explore," can we?

I think that that aspect would be one which fans could (probably) do better than the current batch of paid designers. With trial and error, of course.

Double-S- · Post by **Double-S-** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:08 pm

Esrever wrote:I missed the original's urgency of having the cops on your tail at all times, but man, you just can't compete with the level design in JSRF. Those guys could have made a killer Sonic game.

Really? I felt that a lot of JSRF's stages (especially the later ones) were just too big for their own good. Getting to some places took forever with a ton of testing jumps/tricks along the way, and if you screwed up somewhere you had to start all over again.

plasticwingsband · Post by **plasticwingsband** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:17 pm

I think overall JSR is a better game than JSRF, mainly due to the fact that tagging isn't automatic. Also, the urgency of having the cops on your tail makes it a lot more exciting.

Prophetic_Flame · Post by **Prophetic_Flame** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:58 pm

Double-S- wrote:I don't see how Skies of Arcadia and PSO can fall into the same genre. The games share nothing similar in gameplay or even presentation except for the use of numbers for health, damage, stats, etc.

Valid point noted and I wish I knew.

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:17 pm

jenkins wrote:So exploration is one of the most important things in a Sonic game? Sounds correct, I hadn't really pinned that aspect down yet.

Goddamn it, NO. The most important thing about Sonic is running really, really fast through colourful places.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:28 pm

Goddamn it, NO. The most important thing about Sonic is running really, really fast through colourful places.

I hope you're being sarcastic, because the past four games have focused on that and all been really bad at it.

Tsuyoshi-kun · Post by **Tsuyoshi-kun** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:35 am

Sonic Adventure 2 was colorful? You mostly were stuck in cities, outer space, and in pyramids the entire damn game. Almost zero level and color variety outside of Knuckles and Rogue's levels.

jenkins · Post by **jenkins** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 9:13 am

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:Sonic Adventure 2 was colorful? You mostly were stuck in cities, outer space, and in pyramids the entire damn game. Almost zero level and color variety outside of Knuckles and Rogue's levels.

Crazy Gadget, anyone? Rainbow-hue Tetris blocks strike me as pretty colorful. City Escape was vibrant and lively, too, as was Final Rush.

J-Man: don't get me wrong, speed and colour are critical. I had said "one" of the most important aspects. Increasingly so considering the recent games...the only level in SA2 which I seriously enjoyed exploring was Meteor Herd.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 3:14 pm

Ugh, I hated both Rouge and Knuckles space levels. In fact I just kind of hated all of those shard hunting levels, but the big ones especially pissed me off. I still remember finishing Knuckles last level of SA1 and seeing 58 minutes when it went through the stats for the level.

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:14 pm

58 minutes? You suck.
Oh wait, it's friggin' Sky Deck. Nevermind.

gr4yJ4Y · Post by **gr4yJ4Y** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:15 pm

I think when the people at Sega read "We like exploration in Sonic games" they think they should add more SA2 Knuckles/Rouge levels, and I don't know about anyone else, but I could do without them.

But I would like more focus on platform jumping and less on going really really fast (which is also important). Maybe if they broke it up a little more.

FlashTHD · Post by **FlashTHD** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:49 pm

Light Speed wrote:I still remember finishing Knuckles last level of SA1 and seeing 58 minutes when it went through the stats for the level.

....my god, tell me you're yanking our chain. Knuckles' Sky Deck is TINY compared to Red Mountain and Lost World, and I can get all three shards in about half of the two minutes the stage's A Emblem gives you with a little luck. Without the restart trick.

You know, i've been playing through SA1 again to rebuild my save file, and I like the treasure hunting stages a bit more than I used to. They're plenty non-linear, and there's an indirect speed element to it as well if you want a decent clear time/score. They aren't stellar, but fun. SA2's, however, not nearly as much. By pumping up the size of the stages so much, they ended up turning them more into the chore people make them out to be.

Post by **G.Silver** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:25 pm

I prefered Knuckles and Rouge in SA2 quite a bit, I think the control was tighter and the emerald radar seems to be more effective. I have to admit that was not my initial impression, they didn't grow on me until I started going for emblems and I really began to know my way around the stages.

Tsuyoshi-kun · Post by **Tsuyoshi-kun** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:09 pm

I would've loved the Kunckles / Rogue stages a lot more if you didn't find the shards one at a time. How many more A ranks I would've gotten if you weren't forced to find them that way, which the original did not force you to do.

Post by **Delphine** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:20 pm

Yeah, that bothered me too. It was possible to find them by accident, but I think that happened to me all of twice.

Senbei · Post by **Senbei** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 10:54 am

I used to say that I hated SA2's hunting levels, but once I figured out the general locations that the shards would usually be at, it wasn't so bad. Meteor Herd can basically be split into three sections, the ground, platforms, and the space station, and all you have to do is give each a once over to get an idea of where the shard might be. This is made easier thanks to Knuckles/Rouge's relatively tight gameplay.

The pyramid levels were the worst for me because you couldn't get a general idea of where the shard would be without navigating the endless tunnels and hidden rooms. It was claustrophobia-inducing.

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:14 pm

I just uncovered the last published Official Dreamcast Magazine, and lo and behold, it contained a list of every Dreamcast game from best to worst. Rankings didn't rely on previous scores but were instead the result of hours of discussion. There were 167 rated, but the top twenty five were:

1. Soul Calibur
2. Shenmue
3. NFL 2K1
4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
5. Resident Evil: Code Veronica
6. Jet Grind Radio
7. Virtua Tennis
8. Skies of Arcadia
9. Dead or Alive 2
10. Crazy Taxi
11. Grandia II
12. Power Stone
13. MDK2
14. Rayman 2
15. NBA 2K1
16. Marvel vs Capcom 2
17. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
18. Test Drive Le Mans
19. Sonic Adventure
20. Quake III: Arena
21. Metropolis Street Racer
22. StarLancer
23. Ultimate Fighting Championship
24. Samba de Amigo
25. Sega GT

The worst game, #167, was WWF Attitude, a port from the PS1.

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:49 pm

4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

SHOCK

17. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

DOUBLE SHOCK

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:48 pm

I played the crap out of both of those games. I wouldn't say it should be number four, but it definately deserves to be up there. Putting both games on the list is kind of redundant though since 2 is really just an improvement of 1.

Double-S- · Post by **Double-S-** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:36 pm

Yeah, and then it all pretty much went downhill from there.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:53 pm

Well, I liked 3, but it was pretty much the same as 1/2. They kind of took made a hybrid of the two and it was pretty good. After that I stopped playing them because 4 came out so soon that I knew it was most likely going to be the same stuff again and I didn't want to shell out more money. I eventually played Underground quite a bit at a friends house and thought it was kinda lame. They just took the Tony Hawk mechanics and added a retarded story with some really ridiculous tasks.

Tsuyoshi-kun · Post by **Tsuyoshi-kun** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 12:38 am

My brother kept playing until Underground 2. Oh, those years of torture of watching him play Tony Hawk. Fortunately he stopped playing it before American Wasteland came out, which I've heard is the worst (and most gross) game yet.

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 5:30 am

Putting both games on the list is kind of redundant though since 2 is really just an improvement of 1.

Maybe 1 is considered to be better than all the games below it, despite there being no need to buy both 1 and 2. Another reason I don't like lists like this, there's rarely ever any well defined rules.

Tsuyoshi-kun · Post by **Tsuyoshi-kun** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 5:37 am

Crazy Penguin wrote:Maybe 1 is considered to be better than all the games below it, despite there being no need to buy both 1 and 2.

In all honesty, the second one is the only one of the seven games that I actually had somewhat fun playing. The first game's physics were too limited with your air (good luck getting more than a couple of seconds on most levels), and the controls were more sluggish. The rewards were a lot better than the original's, as well. 3 was ugly and boring, 4 was mediocre at best, and Underground and beyond are just plain stupid.