Sonic 4 and Why I don't give a crap.
I am a Sonic fan. I always have and I always will be. Till this day I will stand my ground by calling Sonic Rush "The Best game of all time" (in my book, the runner up is Ducktales for NES). However, I am fully aware of Sonic's relevancy in these past 3d generations and how he has been choking on the dust trail of Mario and dying of the abuses done to him by Sega. For the past couple of months, Sega has been teasing a new Sonic game for consoles. This game has been revealed to be Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and the only playable character is Sonic. And although I'm a die-hard fan of the series, I don't give a crap.
Why?
The house that built Sonic still exists, but nobody is home
Not only that, but the only development team that produced decent Sonic games this side of 1993 (god I feel old) is not involved in this game. Yuji Naka is in his own studio doing wierd WiiWare games involving tapping or catching, but other notables are doing awesome things not involving Sega. Dimps is a ninja development studio. They work on a lot of games without taking much credit. I loved them for the Sonic Advance series, Sonic Rush series, and making Sonic Unleashed a somewhat playable game on Wii. Why aren't they doing this game?
Episodic? You have to be kidding me!
Do you know how long the average good Sonic game is? Usually 3-6 hours. About the same time you would play through Super Metroid. You want to make this game episodic? Am I going to end up paying $10 for 1-2 hours of gameplay? You've got to be kidding me. Imagine how much hate mail Capcom would get if MM9 or MM10 were episodic?
The more it reminds me of S3&k, the more I realize I hated them.
If you want to look at the descent of Sonic, people typically look at SA1, Sonic Shuffle, or Shadow the Hedgehog. I honestly think you have to look as far back as Sonic 3. This was the game that cheapened everything about the difficulty of the previous 2d sonic games. In a lava area? Grab that fire shield and you'll never get hit. It made the game so easy, the levels had to remove any normal level design to try to make it harder for the player, it just made it stupider.
It looks slow as hell.
One thing (of many) that has not translated well from 2d to 3d for Sonic is the sense of speed. Even at 2.5d, the trailer had a huge issue doing it. What I find odd is that the Sonic Rush series was in 2.5d and it didn't have this problem. This brings me back to my first reason....
In short, thanks, but no thanks Sega. I've wanted Sonic 4 for well over 15 years now. Now that you have finally announced it, I've come to realize how distant you are from the fan base you are pathetically attempting to sell this game to. Like always, you've attempted to follow in the footsteps of Nintendo, but it is too little too late and you don't have the profit margins to prove yourself deserving of that ego.
Good day to you sir!
Why?
The house that built Sonic still exists, but nobody is home
Not only that, but the only development team that produced decent Sonic games this side of 1993 (god I feel old) is not involved in this game. Yuji Naka is in his own studio doing wierd WiiWare games involving tapping or catching, but other notables are doing awesome things not involving Sega. Dimps is a ninja development studio. They work on a lot of games without taking much credit. I loved them for the Sonic Advance series, Sonic Rush series, and making Sonic Unleashed a somewhat playable game on Wii. Why aren't they doing this game?
Episodic? You have to be kidding me!
Do you know how long the average good Sonic game is? Usually 3-6 hours. About the same time you would play through Super Metroid. You want to make this game episodic? Am I going to end up paying $10 for 1-2 hours of gameplay? You've got to be kidding me. Imagine how much hate mail Capcom would get if MM9 or MM10 were episodic?
The more it reminds me of S3&k, the more I realize I hated them.
If you want to look at the descent of Sonic, people typically look at SA1, Sonic Shuffle, or Shadow the Hedgehog. I honestly think you have to look as far back as Sonic 3. This was the game that cheapened everything about the difficulty of the previous 2d sonic games. In a lava area? Grab that fire shield and you'll never get hit. It made the game so easy, the levels had to remove any normal level design to try to make it harder for the player, it just made it stupider.
It looks slow as hell.
One thing (of many) that has not translated well from 2d to 3d for Sonic is the sense of speed. Even at 2.5d, the trailer had a huge issue doing it. What I find odd is that the Sonic Rush series was in 2.5d and it didn't have this problem. This brings me back to my first reason....
In short, thanks, but no thanks Sega. I've wanted Sonic 4 for well over 15 years now. Now that you have finally announced it, I've come to realize how distant you are from the fan base you are pathetically attempting to sell this game to. Like always, you've attempted to follow in the footsteps of Nintendo, but it is too little too late and you don't have the profit margins to prove yourself deserving of that ego.
Good day to you sir!