Sonic Discussion

@Background Pony #F596  
Except it is. Sonic Boom had legitimate reasons for sucking: Sega agreed with Nintendo to make it Wii U-exclusive without telling the developers, and they were making it in CryEngine, which isn’t compatible with Wii U, so they had to bodge it all together really shoddily, and it was rushed out the door for a Christmas release anyway.
 
Sonic Forces is an insult because Sonic Team clearly just didn’t try. Or maybe they did, which is even sadder. The gameplay is the same flawed boost formula, but the new character creator is actually really well fleshed-out. The levels are short, boring and easy, but the graphics are great. The story is hot garbage and they seem to have forgotten what tone is, but… actually, wait, I ran out of positives. And it’s ATROCIOUSLY short. There are some good things about it, which makes it all the more frustrating that there were some really poor elements.
 
Terrible as it is, Sonic Boom at least pushes into so-bad-it’s-good territory. Only Sonic Forces’ story manages that. The rest of it is painfully mediocre.

@BrownieComicWriter  
I just bought Sonic Forces.
 
Having a blast so far.

@Background Pony #F596  
Well, have fun with that. And if you actually do have fun with it, then more power to you.

@BrownieComicWriter  
Thank you.

Y’know, despite the mixed or negative reception of the console version, the Mobile version of “Sonic Forces” is getting great reviews. Though, to be honest, it’s more like another “Sonic Runners” game, then anything like the console “Sonic Forces.” It’s still fun though.

Just defeated Infinite at Mystic Jungle.

Has anyone here heard of Imakuni? I just watched her (very short) LP of Sonic Forces. It was interesting to watch her go from “oh, this isn’t too bad” to “this is pretty mediocre” to “ASGFNJHBXBLCMSFD” over the course of 4 hours.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVCrJyFHVIk

Also worth noting that Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was in development for 7 years, but for much of that development time they didn’t even KNOW what console it was even going to be on.

@Jarkes  
7 years? I find that hard to believe.

@Jarkes  
I would be shocked/outraged, but at this point I think I’m too numb.

I am the only one who thinks SEGA needs a change of employes and people to direct everything?

@Shadow the Hedgehog
 
I almost feel that Sega should go bankrupt and all of it’s IP’s go to different companies, but that’s probably just the spite talking

@Littlecabbit  
I actually loathe that idea, considering the only Sega property that any other company would buy would be Sonic, and they’d forget every other franchise. Heck, we rarely see a new Bubble Bobble ever sense Square/Enix bought them & Taito. We rarely see any new Hudson Soft games from Konami after they bought them. And let’s not forget how the Bonk the caveman revival died when Hudson went under.  
Despite their half-assed games, at least we know Sega cares about Sonic. Any other company would’ve axed the series after any slight negative reviews of a game from 10 years ago.
 
I’d honestly hate to see Sonic under any other company, considering they wouldn’t know what to do with the franchise even more then Sega, or might even be worse. I say just let Sega outsource Sonic to Headcanon, Christian Whitehead, or other developers if they don’t have the time to develop it.
 
Like for example, I love Nintendo, but I wouldn’t want them to buy Sonic. Why? Because they’d just turn him into another nearly-personality-less character like Mario, with hardly any continuity, or depth in story. And every new game would just be another reboot like Zelda, or every JRPG.  
Not to mention, they would never allow anymore comics, or cartoon shows to be made of Sonic, and really limit the series’ alternative media, and pop-culture status. At least, Sega is a bit more liberal with their franchises, Nintendo is very picky meanwhile. Not to mention, Sega considers Sonic an “American” franchise, because it’s more popular outside Japan.  
Look at how Nintendo handles other franchises that are “more popular” in America like Metroid, Star Fox, and such. They don’t prioritize them as much as Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, or Fire Emblem which are huge hits in Japan. Not to mention, Nintendo’s American developer “Nintendo Software Technologies” is only allowed to make Mini-Mario DK puzzle games, and Retro Studios is such a small American developer for them, they only make a new Metroid or DK game every 6 or so years.
 
I love Nintendo, (more then Sega in fact) so I hate to talk about that way, I doubt they would know what to do with Sonic. They don’t even understand what their fans want with Star Fox. (Star Fox Zero probably would’ve been better with the nunchuck.)

@Beau Skunky
 
Honestly, I’m getting kind of sick of the whole “Sega should just let fans like Whitehead be the sole developers of Sonic games instead of Sonic Team” mentality too. Sonic Mania was great as a one-time thing, but I do not believe that it should be the standard from now on.

@Jarkes  
Sorry, that’s not what I meant, (I meant if Sega doesn’t have the time or money to do it) but I actually share that frustration too. Whitehead does great 2D games, but I doubt he could handle directing a 3D title.
 
And I actually agree, every game shouldn’t just be a retro throwback like Mania.

But how long before fans get sick of having more Booms and Forces and stop caring, and leave Sonic in the dust anyway?  
@Beau Skunky  

 
How do you know? For all we know he could make a great followup to SA2.

If we get another retro throwback game like Mania, I’d prefer it if it actually had only brand-new stages.

And I find it funny how people have suddenly turned against Colors and Generations in recent years despite those games being very loved when they came out (save for a few naysayers who refuse to play anything past a certain point in the series, but those people are just idiots).

@Jarkes  
Those are still great games, honestly. And personally, I think Whitehead could be a great addition to Sonic Team as a developer.  
The fact that Forces only started development last year is troubling and tells me Sonic Team needs better management, or they need to rethink their development process. Like, actually take the extra time to work on a new game.  
Also, I heard a sequel will have new stages, I think having all the retro stages was Sega’s decision.

@Mike  
What if he didn’t like SA2?
 
@Jarkes  
I agree, retro stages are nice, but if I wanted to play those, I’d just go play the original games.
 
@Jarkes  
It’s nothing new, the Sonic Adventure games were beloved too on Dreamcast/GameCube, now people just go off about how they didn’t “age well,” or nitpick minor things. (And people forget the “Sonic Adventure: International Version” actually fixed alot of problems the game had.)
 
One time I totally triggered a guy just mentioning I had “Sonic Adventure DX,” and he rattled off a whole bunch of glitches the game had, (that I never personally encountered) proving why it’s bad.  
I think some people are trying to convince themselves Sonic games are worse then they actually are.  
(Cough)IDW.(Cough!)

@Beau Skunky
 
I do like how the retro stages in Mania still have a bunch of new things in them too (like the Classic versions of the Classic Era stages in the console version of Generations), so they don’t feel like retreads. Not to mention most of the bosses are new if I’m not mistaken.
 
Honestly though, the Adventure games really haven’t aged well, but they’re still really good games. And yes, the International version did fix most of the glitches the original game had (apparently the original Japanese Dreamcast release was way more glitchy).

@Jarkes  
I kinda wish they’d remake the two SA games, so they do “age well.”
 
Though, admittedly the corny english dub voices, dialogue, and mismatched mouth animations are kinda part of the narm charm of the original games.

@Beau Skunky
 
There’s this one guy I’ve seen on Twitter who does “Modern” style renders of the Dreamcast-era model, and he even did some renders with the crazy mouth movements too.
 
I’ve been having trouble finding his work again though, since I can’t actually remember his name.

@Jarkes  
That’s cool. I’ve seen a few nicely animated SFM animations remaking cinematic scenes from SA & SA2 on Youtube.

My two cents, for what it’s worth: Sega doesn’t deserve to die and have all its IPs snatched away by other companies. They need to get their shit together, sure, but IIRC, they haven’t done anything to deserve full-on company death, like going full-Konami and abandoning video games for pachinko machines.
 
@Beau Skunky  
There are a few things about the Sonic Adventure games that really haven’t aged well (the voice acting in the first game leaves me scratching my head and wondering why people preferred Ryan Drummond as the voice of Sonic, even though he does get better in Adventure 2 and Heroes), but I still like them and think they hold up better than most people think. A remake of those two games, or at least a Crash Bandicoot-style remaster would definitely be nice.
 
Also, going off-topic a bit since Sega having its IPs being bought by other companies was brought up, one IP I think Sega should just sell to Nintendo out-right is Bayonetta. People complain about the second game (and now also the third) being Nintendo exclusive… but that’s only because Sega isn’t funding the games. Nintendo is footing the bill instead. Why is Sega holding onto Bayonetta if they’re not gonna be doing anything with it?