Sonic Unleashed?

[Hulkshmash]

having no experience whatsoever, I could totally totally direct a better Sonic game and make it amazing and even better than anything in 2D all I need to do is tell people to stop making them shitty and everything will be perfect again!!!

Well of course, that's simple logic.

[Shadow Hog]

The secret to Sonic...

...is the secret to life itself.

42?

[MiraiTails]

The number of games between SA2 and the next reasonably good non-handheld Sonic game.

[Isuka]

Which will probably show up on a brand new SEGA home console, with Ohshima, Yasuhara and all the other guys back in.

And talking about SA2:

¯

Coincidence?... Probably, yes.

[DackAttac]

It's totally a coincidence, that's what makes it so pathetic. This whole good half/evil half ying-yang clihé has been driven into the fucking ground. I'm collectively referring to Metal Sonic, Shadow, Silver and—even though he technically is Sonic—the Werehog as "the Döpplegang" from now on.

[Dasher]

World Adventure sounds so much better, lets just hope it is Adventure 3 in terms of quality....lets hope.

[CM August]

Huh. I just noticed Sonic's quills look significantly better now than circa SA2.

[MiraiTails]

I vaguely remember Sonic's new look being a bit of "big deal" around the time SA came out.

I agree that he looks better now. More akin to the Genesis days, I think. It makes me wonder if the other characters will look any different.

[Dasher]

Sonic Does look very similar to the Genesis days in this game...his model at least.

[K2J]

Brazil interview (untranslated version) with Patrick Riley.

* Tails playable in Sky Chase (SA1)-esque minigames.
* Wii version uses waggle as much for day stages as night stages, which, considering the NP interview said that most basic actions would be by the buttons, is a good sign.
* Storyline is somewhat optional

Sonic will face a new sufficiently different enemy of its old one, Dr. Eggman. This enemy and its armies will go to compose the biggest challenge of Sonic in the game. It also will have to face new challenges that it never faced before during the nocturnal phases.

"Sufficiently different enemy". Great. Overshadow confirmed, the rumor I mentioned loses reliability.

[DackAttac]

It seems to me if they're so good at keeping this shit under wraps until four months before release, maybe they should take it one step forward and not put them in the damn game.

[Frieza2000]

I think he's just talking about Dark Gaia and the army of demons from the E3 demo.

[Dasher]

Enough with the Demons, Lizards and Aliens Sonic team! what is this Sonic gone X-Files?

[RocketPunch]

Sonic vs. Eggman isn't just better than Sonic vs. Water god/Demon/Lizard, it's more socially conscious. When Sonic's fighting Eggman, he's fighting pollution, tyranny, and obesity, the three biggest threats to modern civilization. He'd be a much more relevant video game character if they'd just revert back to the original scenario.

[FlashTHD]

Sonic vs. Eggman isn't just better than Sonic vs. Water god/Demon/Lizard, it's more socially conscious. When Sonic's fighting Eggman, he's fighting pollution, tyranny, and obesity, the three biggest threats to modern civilization. He'd be a much more relevant video game character if they'd just revert back to the original scenario.

Funny, and I somewhat agree with this provided PPA doesn't walk in now with one of his "nature vs. technology" examples; oh god what have I done. Bad news is, in the minds of a lot of other fans and psuedo-fans I unfortunately know, "revert back to the original scenario" implies all of the following: rewinding the series back to happy 90's times with Genesis-era everything or close to it and/or (ick) nonstop extreem fanservice bliss, keeping it boxed up there, putting a padlock on said box and throwing the key off the Brooklyn Bridge.

In other words, to many, a retread is a retread unless it's classic Sonic enough. Like, whoever said forward thinking and the big picture were worth a damn? So, I think the sentiment of "revisiting" concepts like Sonic vs. Eggman these days is sadly tainted by a fat lot of pretentious bull. LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Not implying that was your intent. Ramblings at 2 AM on a message board on the internets are probably not 100% coherent

[DackAttac]

In other words, to many, a retread is a retread unless it's classic Sonic enough.

A retread is a retread in any situation unless it's done out of joy and passion for what's being treaded back into. That's why a lot of these "throwback bands" suck, they're done more out of a disdain for modern pop music than a love for the genre they're playing in.

Look at Heroes, visually. It's a retread of the worst kind, there's nothing in there that isn't "supposed to be".

I went back to Secret Rings and I have to say the game was visually directed in a very, very fresh and yet refreshing way. If they'd only put that kind of effort into the gameplay...

I'd like to say that the plot doesn't matter to me as much as people make a big deal out of it, but A) there's nothing quite like a good story to rev you up for the game and B) you know these shitty little fudgepackers are going to inflect the gameplay at some point.

[Dasher]

I believe they just ran out of ideas, we already have Metal sonic, Shadow, Jet, all there was left was an evil version of Sonic himself, Well here we have Werehog. I personally prefer Werehog instead of Dragons as the last boss, but it seems that without Oshima and junk they have believed that Sonic=Dragon monsters as the last boss. We are dealing with a fairly new Sonic team that knows little of the original Sonic flavor we all know. But remember that Sonic 1 and 2 specially were created under tight circumstances, Naka even quit SEGA 2 times in those days. Sonic was a beautiful flower in a dark murky swamp, a true marvel indeed for those times. Sadly the swamp got bigger and the flower is now dirty with impurities.

But it is not just Sonic, many mascots have suffered the change of times in their own ways, but the true key to keeping a franchise 100% alive is to have the original creators still around, like Mario still has Miyamoto and so on.

[DackAttac]

I personally think the problem is rather than try to re-craft Sonic from a 2D field to a 3D field, and reinterpret all the styles and subtleties, the current team is just looking to the already-existing ones for precedents to follow. Even when they take cues from Sonic Adventure 1, they're cues that have been used to death and wouldn't make for an amazing game even when used correctly.

After Heroes, the last game to at least look back to the days of 2D, tanked, they looked back to SA2 for Shadow. When that ship sank, they went in a wild new direction but with the same old archetypes. Failing at that, they're now making SA1 again.

It's unrelated to getting good gameplay, but a Sonic game that actually makes us whistle and say "now there's a good idea!" is only going to happen when the project is helmed by someone who has the balls to throw Sonic Adventure and all that followed into the woodchipper and use nothing but the Genesis titles as inspiration.

[Rob-Bert]

All the humans, monsters, and aliens and junk make me wonder if they're relying on all the post 50th issue Archie comics for plot and aesthetic inspiration.

Now that I think of it, most of Sonic Heroes' plot reminds me of that one Metal Sonic arc from the Fleetway comics.

[FlashTHD]

a Sonic game that actually makes us whistle and say "now there's a good idea!" is only going to happen when the project is helmed by someone who has the balls to throw Sonic Adventure and all that followed into the woodchipper

If you meant shredding the plot devices they've abused twenty times too many since then, then I suppose. But only the Genesis era? That's what (I think) I meant, that's pushing it a bit too far backwards. edit: disregard this i'm not even sure what that part meant

[DackAttac]

Maybe woodchipper was too strong a word, but at least the backburner. Elements they keep using just because "it worked in SA1&2" shouldn't be here. Granted, I'm not talking about fanservice of perpetual early-90's arrested development, like putting Eggman back in the simple red shirt, massive yellow collar, black pants get-up. Nor do I expect them to "reinvent Eggman", because characters are the kind of thing that you need some sort of consistency for. I'm not talking about rebooting the series à la Batman Begins, I want the series to continue on as normal, but what once were vices now are habits, as they say. They have this formula set up for these games because it worked the first time, and it's allowed them to sleepwalk through the part of the game's conception where people usually come up with original ideas.

Why real world locations? Because SA1 pulled it off so well and SA2's most iconic moment was the San Fran level. Why a massive superpower? Because it worked in SA1&2, and people complained when it was toned down (but still there!) in Heroes. I'll give them credit for at least bringing back Act1-Act2-Boss in Heroes, but all in all, in felt really forced. It was a retread because it was a retread. There was no passion for the classic Sonic games, there was just an attempt to coast on regurgitated surreal elements from previous games. Gawsh, a Casino level? Where have I seen that three times before?

It's like there's a bunch of oil under the ground in a remote area, but to get to it, they have to drill. SA1 drilled once, but instead of drilling again for more, they just try to suck more out of the first rig.

To put it really simply, I want a new 3D Sonic game to take something out of the original series that SA1 didn't already extract.

But first, I want the actual gameplay to be fun. Any word on when they're putting that demo out?

[FlashTHD]

words

Makes sense. I think it's been mentioned, though it might be a rumor, the demo will be a download and it'll hit the 360/PS3 around release time. But Sega reps will say anything and everything >_>

[Arcade]

Things that ARENT HARDCORE and ~X-TREME

-Not making a videogame that has 3 Sonic characters doing the work of one, all because of teamwork!

-Shadow without a gun!

-Not sellling a game with a CRACKLOAD of bugs!

-Sonic being a jerk, not evil, or evil Super, just a jerk!.

-Knuckles the Echidna not being folled by -Insert name here-

-Sonic NOT LOOKING LIKE A CRASH BANDICOT VIDEOGAME CHARACTER!

-Sonic not using a sword!, because babe, super speed is enough, lets get to the Final Fantasy fans making Sonic totaly not use a sword!.

[Dasher]

Don't forget "identifying the Sonic franchise with the worst dubbing company in America"

I don't care what you say as GG says "lalalalala I'm not listening" it is the worst anime killer of all time, and now it is synonymous with Sonic games and the dreadful anime Sonic X, as if Sonic wasn't hurt enough already.

But..First we have to concentrate on the gameplay because Sonic is also hurting in Japan ATM, soooo...My suggestion is, the level design of SA1 and maybe 2 was the best Sonic has been on the 3D world. By the looks of it Unleashed is a mixture of the Classic Gameplay and SA series as we look at the Japanese title Sonic World Adventure this is my calculations (Sonic World= Classic + Adventure = SA1/Sa2) So both styles of gameplay huh, not bad...but will it work? we all seen the demo being played, and we all can agree that it does LOOK fun, Unlike Sonic360 which looked boring and slooooow since the beginning. 1st, Sonic can stop at will, 2nd "one of my concepts i had in my mind was created!! the whole r1 and r2 move Sonic left and right to dodge! that was actually in my mind since a long time and it is here, it lives and it looks gorgeous in action. The whole combination of buttons like RUSH and Boost like Rush! they were good in Rush and they look good here. So...so far so good, I'm looking forward to it, It is not really Classic and Adventure but it can be Rush and Adventure...but it may also be...Classic,Rush and Adventure together! it is a bold move...so lets see how the can pull it off for our favorite Video game hero.

[Rob-Bert]

Are you two related?