Game|Life's Susan Arendt has written an interesting opinion piece that basically asks Sega to just stop making Sonic games. It's not that she doesn't like the character -- she does like the character, and has fond memories of when he appeared in good games.As she puts it, "The Sonic games veered further and further away from their simple, yet elegantly satisfying roots, and entered into a territory of uninspired gameplay, pointless mechanics, and craptastic supporting characters." With each game, a few new characters have been thrown on the already-towering pile of anthropomorphic animals who just don't matter at all.
Arendt says that the spinoff RPG Sonic Chronicles does show some promise, but that as far as the main series goes, it's over. The best recent Sonic game has been Dimps' Sonic Rush, which was ... okay. At this point Sonic Team has shown that they have forgotten how to make a decent Sonic game, and so they should just not make any more and let us preserve our memories of when we enjoyed the series.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-14-2008 @ 2:21PM
TheCoats said...
However much i loved Shadow i just think there is no dignity left to die with......i was a big sega kid and still am......sonic hasnt made a decent game since dreamcast but we all have to remember sonic has always made these mistakes (there still is hope).....look at sonic 3D Blast and Dr. Robotnics mean bean machine.....and lets not forget the game Sonic Shuffle
with that said i just think sonic needs a revival.....there is hope......but then again it might be a pipe dream....what needs to and should have happened was what recently happened with Contra......Classic and awsome and staying that way
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3-14-2008 @ 3:08PM
Gewurztraminer (needs more umlaut) said...
Yes, SEGA should follow Capcom's lead and literally make Sonic the Hedgehog 4. It could work, too, because Sonic & Knuckles wasn't Sonic 4, it was Sonic 3.5.
I never played the Adventure games and Sonic Rush was OK but I never finished it. I have high hopes for the Bioware RPG at least.
But, do I think Sonic should die and go away? Not at all. In fact, the best thing to happen to him (i feel) has been his inclusion in Brawl.
3-14-2008 @ 3:10PM
Gewurztraminer (needs more umlaut) said...
d'oh. I meant, they should follow KONAMI's lead, not CAPCOM. Konami makes Contra. duh.
3-14-2008 @ 3:24PM
Joshua said...
Or you could be referring to Street Fighter IV, so it still works out. :)
3-14-2008 @ 2:30PM
C02M0 said...
remakes at all should be stopped.
mario,sonic,zelda,kirby .
should die in a fire , some people may think otherwise tho.
nintendo saw mario was a succses so they keep making his games over and over , new game3s whould be much better
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3-14-2008 @ 2:33PM
TheCoats said...
AS much as i love zelda and remakes (that are good) i kind of agree....i mean streets of rage 2 is my favorite game.......it just holds this kind of glory....and its a special event when i pull out my sega and play it.........keeping new concepts and charecters might be more difficult but i think maybe more time and effort would be put into them to make sure they are excellent so they can later be that glorious game that the gamer will just get cravings to play once a month
3-14-2008 @ 2:39PM
Nigeria: Cody ChesnuTT Defense Force said...
I read her article and it was awful. I'm not a Sega fanboy but it was awful. It was full of cliche and redundancy which people have taken for fact.
Sonic Heroes doesn't suck. Lots of people enjoyed that game. Sonic the Hedgehog on the PS3 wasn't bad, from the limited time I spent playing it.
I mean, why's it cool to hate Sonic all of a sudden? And Sonic Team? There still doing a good job, kinda.
Basicially, it was an easy article. Easy and lazy.
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3-14-2008 @ 2:44PM
TheCoats said...
The article might not be the rand splendor of writing, but i do believe sonic has lost its nastalgia.......yeah the games arent bad but they just dont feel like sonic-the-crazy-awsome-fast-platformer. i own almost every sonic game legit (Including the awsome 32X Knuckles chaotix). i just dont hold the more recent titles so near and dear to me....so i understand the standpoint of the article
3-14-2008 @ 3:07PM
Nigeria: Cody ChesnuTT Defense Force said...
...but Sonic in invincible. He can go super. And he has BLAST PROCESSING.
You can't run out of blast processing. Ever. It's renewable like rain.
3-15-2008 @ 1:44PM
Fullmetal Salchemist said...
Sonic on the PS3 was awful. Perhaps you didn't think so because you didn't play it long enough.
Also, "lots of people enjoy[ing] the game" doesn't keep it from being rubbish.
3-14-2008 @ 2:56PM
Igmolicious said...
I gotta say, the pinnacle of my beloved Sonic's days was definitely back on the Genesis. Plus, how are you going to beat Sonic 3's ability to PLUG A FRICKEN' CARTRIDGE into the top, and play through an older Sonic game with new characters?! You can't!
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3-14-2008 @ 3:04PM
TheCoats said...
Dude,
that was sonic and Knuckles that you could plug in other sonic games to.....and you could plug in other non-sonic-games and hit a button combo to play the bonus stages from sonic & knuckles.......a epic game none the less
3-14-2008 @ 3:08PM
Nigeria: Cody ChesnuTT Defense Force said...
Sonic & Knuckles was epic. Is epic. Always will be epic.
3-14-2008 @ 3:09PM
Igmolicious said...
Ah, so it was. Well, in my memory's defense, it HAS been, like 10 years since I played those games. Needless to say, I definitely agree that it was a truly epic game.
3-14-2008 @ 3:12PM
TheCoats said...
I wasn't an NES kid i grew up with sega....i play it ALOT.....it has been awhile though...
3-14-2008 @ 2:58PM
folkie_1 said...
I didn't bother reading the article, but after not being impressed with Sonic for a long time, I realized that there were a bunch of Sonic handheld games that were supposedly good. I tried a couple for only a few minutes and found them to be what I remember a Sonic game should be. I purchased Sonic Rush Adventure for the DS and absolutely loved it. I thought it very odd that a Sonic game did something (sailing) better than a recent Nintendo game (Zelda Phantom Hourglass, and let's throw in Windwaker too). For all the Sonic-haters who used to be Sonic-lovers, check out Sonic Rush Adventure, it really is quite good. I didn't play the first one, I assume it's close in quality. I didn't even mind Blaze the cat, the other girl in it was dumb, but Blaze was allright, and there weren't too many other new/annoying characters.
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3-14-2008 @ 3:17PM
TheCoats said...
Sonic Rush got an award at E3 in 2005 for biggest surprise......it was a pretty true sonic game i just didnt like the focus on the story plots.....
3-14-2008 @ 3:10PM
Gewurztraminer (needs more umlaut) said...
d'oh. I meant, they should follow KONAMI's lead, not CAPCOM. Konami makes Contra. duh.
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3-14-2008 @ 3:12PM
Gewurztraminer (needs more umlaut) said...
aw c'mon! how many times to i have to click reply for reply to reply? it's a blog, not a point and click adventure in frustration. bleh =p sorry.
/rant
3-14-2008 @ 3:25PM
Josh said...
Good article or not, Sonic (or should I say SEGA) has lost its inspiration/magic. I still play each of the original 2D games often. After the success of bringing Mario to 3D, I could hardly wait for Sonic to burst onto the scene as a great 3D "platformer".
Problem is, I'm still waiting. And while I personally believe that the franchises attempts at "3D" are quite a fall from grace, it is not worth debating if the games are "decent" or how many people may have actually "liked" the game.
Sonic employed a good, consistent, and focused game-play mechanic that successfully mixed exploration with thrilling speed; Together with an exciting, vibrant, and highly animated world that you _could_ actually explore - a world that stood above the crowd in how tangible it felt. There were no explicit "missions" or "game modes" forced upon the player (which fragments the game mechanic and learned skill set). This all worked to impart a sense of freedom and wonder unmatched by many games of the time.
The "3D" sonic games of today may present a 3D world, but all too often that world is sectioned off with invisible walls, floors that you can't actually stand on, and "running on a track" game-play. They advertise a freedom and consistency that should be there, but isn't.
Personally, I've come to think that today's SEGA is no longer the environment able to incubate the creation of 3D sonic that is the true successor to the original 2D games in terms of game-play, music, or world design. Diluting the world with characters reeks of a publisher's solution to a developer's problem.
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