Time to reinvent Sonic the Hedgehog, says Sega

I declare ValdeZ Poole the winner of this thread with his post about what Sonic needs to be: 2-D dammit! Furthermore, it needs to have like 30 levels, each ending with a battle against Eggman. Smooth vector graphics a la LocoRoco, only even better in 1080p and with crisp textures. But I have to disagree with the losing of the sidekicks. I remember having lots of fun with Tails and Knuckles in Sonc 3 because they could go places Sonic could not. Tails and Knuckles should get their own special version of each level that involve flying and climbing walls and punching rocks! Oh, and bring back debug mode like in Sonic 1 - 3 hahaha good times!

@1: You good sir, have won the day. Here's your trophy.

But anyway, Sonic needed to be reinvented 3 years ago, if SEGA is only just noticing how shit it's products are, they aren't listening to me bitching at them down the phone. >=(

Secret rings rocked. Its the best anyone is likely to get too.

There are 2 problems with sonic:

(1) - Western audiences aren't interested in anthropomorphic cartoon mascots any more. At least not on the PS3 and Xbox.

(2) - The sonic concept has always been broken. Its always been torn betwen two extremes.. (a) go fast, or (b) explore and pick up rings.

Personally I think Secret Rings got it about right.. make areas that have multiple routes, and then make it purely about speed and reaction.. not about stopping to sightsee and collect stuff.

Sonic sold better on the 360. Why should it only stick to the Wii?

"(2) - The sonic concept has always been broken. Its always been torn betwen two extremes.. (a) go fast, or (b) explore and pick up rings."

Thats what made it a long-living franchise. It was never a broken concept until after the Dreamcast.

Sonic vs. Mario game please.

On the boarder of Emerald City, ten minutes from the Mushroom Kingdom Mario and Sonic glare into each others eyes and say no words.

Cocky as ever, Sonic, makes the first move by rushing over to Mario with lightning fast speed, striking Mario down to the ground. Mario, dizzy from the fall, looks over and finds his favorite flower.

Immediately, he consumes the flower, which turns his eyes a bright red and his hands into fire. With a concerned look in his eyes, Sonic, rushes Mario for a second time only to dodge two fireballs and gets hit by the third. Sonic, burned all over his body, desperately tries to find his scattered rings before Mario could make a fatal blow.

After retrieving most of the rings in under a second, Sonic, transforms into a golden, faster, more powerful state known as Super Sonic. With the fireballs having no effect on Super Sonic, Mario has little to no chance to survive and will be tortured.

After hours of punishment, Mario looks as if he has lost all hope. As a tear runs down Mario's face, out of nowhere a star dropped from the heavens only to land on Mario. With a burst of electric energy, Mario throws Sonic a hundred feet away into a group of baby Yoshi which tear him limb from limb.

Mario, full of happiness and dominance quickly returns to the Castle at the Mushroom Kingdom only to find Luigi, Toad and Peach dead with Tails standing over thier lifeless bodies.

Now is the time to do this? Cmon.. they're a couple years too late. a few 3D game a change does not make.

with all the b!tching and fighting.. forum opinions don't mean a lot. I think the Secret Ring was a good game.. but I found it designed badly.. they over used the stages and the story never flowed, or I wasn't patient enough with it.

Miyamoto is taking care of this project.. maybe Sega can learn about basic gameplay. I played most of the sonic games... they all looked more like popular ideas (Dinosaur, space station, destruction, the color blue, speed) smashed together, instead like fundamental games that focus on gameplay. Sonic games were meant to be like riding a rollercoaster... that idea alone should give a hint it wouldn't last in something like the 3D world. There has to be more...

What I find strange is that many of the complaints people have with 3D Sonic exist in 3D Mario, but 3D Mario games are showered in praise.

If I mentioned a mascot whose move from 2D to 3D was accompanied with:

Terrible vocal work
Bad camerawork
Wonky play control
Nearly complete abandonment of the core 2D game elements (powerups, enemies etc)

Could you tell which mascot I'm talking about?

I was just playing Sonic 3 for genesis yesterday, and it reminded me why I played them in the first place. Its the level design, the ability to take all these different paths to reach the end. They make you go fast for a while, do a few loops etc, and then throw some spikes at you, so you cant just blindly go fast without watching your ass. The shields in sonic 3 were a great addition too.

@57 - nah man, mario 64 was really faithful to the 2d marios. None of those are true for that game at least. Haven't played a 3d mario since, though.

Sonic TSR seems better than it is because there isn't much no the Wii right now. It isn't actually that good. Had the 360 version of Sonic launched with the console, it would have probably seemed a lot better.

Maybe its going to be a first person Sonic.......

I personally thought Sonic/Rings was a step in the right direction. I put it tied with SA as the best 3D Sonic thus far.

The areas I think need to be addressed are:
1. Do not puposefully gimp controls, upgrades are supposed to make controls better not make controls playable
2. If you are going have timed jumps in a level, don't force the player to completely stop to make those and if you really want to break the action like that make it possible to easily stop
3. Go back to the music that was in the Sonic Adventure series, I shouldn't feel the need to mute my tv after every level
4. Backwards movement was simply broken

"You're kidding, right BM?

Sonic has been an icon. In the past, at least. Three different American cartoons (and the more recent Sonic X anime), a few different licensed comic strips (such as the long-running American one by Archie and Fleetway's Sonic the Comic in the UK), a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, and even a gene officially named after him (Sonic hedgehog homolog).

Oh, and let's not forget that when most people think of Sega, they think of Sonic.


It's just that with a very small apperance on Saturn, and poor performances afterwards, Sonic has really dropped in the public's eye.

But to say Sonic isn't iconic is just silly."




Nah man just speaking in hyperbole, I know Sonic has always been nr. 2. ;p

Only replying to the post of that one guy, which I lol'd at. "oh my god my mature iconic blue hedgehog in a kiddeh game with a kiddeh character some fat d00d? idunno"

I agree with a lot of what Valdez said.

1) Story- Save the animals from Robotnik. That's all there needs to be. Not every game needs some epic story, and Sonic games definitely don't need 'em. In fact, they suffer from them. Sonic Rush was the best Sonic in a while, but even it made me cringe during the story-laden interludes.

2) Sidekicks- Get rid of them. Tails is okay. He made it through Sonic 2. But the rest all need to go. The Sonic IP is turning into a magnet for furries, and that's never a good thing.

3) No more humans!- With the exception of Robotnik, who used to be up there in coolness with Bowser. Now, he's a bit embarassing, but he could be rehabilitated.

4) Color- Sonic used to be the most stylish IP out there, but he's suffering from what I call "The Grey Plague"- meaning all games have to be "mature" now, and as gamemakers fight for the teen and 20 something audience, games have gotten progressively muddy-looking in the pursuit of realism. Trust me, if Sonic were restored to his former glory, he'd have no problem finding his audience.

5) Style- Back when powerups were found in malfunctioning TV's, Sonic games used to have a very distinctive, cyber-cool style. They made the polygonal look cool before games actually used polys. Back then, computer animation had a very different look (Think Mind's Eye), and Sonic kind of imitated that. Everything in the world was all geometric, sharp edged, very stylized, and looked like it had a low poly count... but the designers made some really smart choices along the way. The Sonic games were some of the only good-looking things on the color-limited Sega Genesis.

6) Gameplay- I don't care if Sonic stays 3D or not, although a balls-out 2D game on one of the new systems could really rock. But, if the developers decide to keep him 3D, the developers need to take their time. They should only release the game when the game is beyond solid! Brilliant even! Make us look forward to the next installment. We don't need MORE Sonic. We need BETTER Sonic.

Jack-
"Sonic sold better on the 360. Why should it only stick to the Wii?"

Where did you hear this? I don't doubt it, since the game has been out a lot longer, but the closest I could find the Sonic's 360 sales figures is that it sold 38,000 it's first two weeks.
The Wii version, according to VG Charts, has sold 88,500 in two about two weeks (the March numbers aren't in, yet).
I would just be *VERY* surprised to learn that a Sonic game outsold it's Nintendo counter part, is all.
...especially when the game is as bad as Sonic for the 360/PS3.

!What are you talking about guys Sonic saved the world from destruction; Sonic its a Herooo.........

I recommend renting Secret Rings if you haven't played it. It's definitely worth a rental, and you can beat it in a week. But you must be warned, by the end of the first world, you will have turned on your own music and either muted the TV or turned it 90% of the way down.

What? You have to be kidding me. Do you guys at Joystiq even PLAY VIDEO GAMES?!?!?!?! Sonic on the Wii is the first decent Sonic game I have played in YEARS.. Over a decade even. It's the first good 3D Sonic game ever made if you ask me.. and the reason is because they took it back to it's 2D roots but in 3D.. The game isn't bad and it's a good start to getting back on the right track..

Jesus christ guys you could at least bother playing the games before you start putting them down.

I highly doubt this is an April Fools joke Chris... These are official press releases from Sega, Nintendo and the Olympics. That would be among the worlds most expensive April fools jokes.. And for what? What benefit do they possibly get out of pissing off A LOT of gamers who have been waiting for this for TWO DECADES.

April Fools is still 2 days away my friend.

If there is any April fools joke in this whole thing it will be when they announce that the entire thing was an April fools joke.. On the 1st.. and then turn around and say 'Just kidding' on the 2nd.. When they tell us it's really happening and the part about it being a joke was.. just a joke.

If this game doesn't come out I don't think I'll make it.

Steve Galgas , your post is gold. Valdez yours too.

I would LOVE to have Sonic back in all his glory, and these are the ways to do it.

I especially agree with this, "5) Style- Back when powerups were found in malfunctioning TV's, Sonic games used to have a very distinctive, cyber-cool style. They made the polygonal look cool before games actually used polys. Back then, computer animation had a very different look (Think Mind's Eye), and Sonic kind of imitated that. Everything in the world was all geometric, sharp edged, very stylized, and looked like it had a low poly count... but the designers made some really smart choices along the way. The Sonic games were some of the only good-looking things on the color-limited Sega Genesis. "

THAT needs a come back. Remember the secret level in SonicAdventure2? Yeah, old school baby.

why the wii, it should also be sold to xbox360 and PS3. It would make history as the first Mario game for microsoft and sony. And Sonic the Hedgehog was very good for the xbox360 and PS3. Then wii got sonic and the Secret rings. So now all three systems should sell the the same game!!!! (its onily fair)

Hmmmmm lets take.........oh I know 360!
Now........buying techniques like "Slide".......nah ya know what let's just trash that. Not like you needed it anyways....after you buy slide you can run through the wall :)
How bout lets never make another story that ultimately never happened again.
How bout when the castle's gonna fall and crush a vehicle-driving Shadow, but it falls to the left and you go right, it actually DOESNT teleport crush him.
Let's work out the bugs like going through a building or falling through a floor, or gaining Silver powers when you're Shadow.
Oh yeah and when you go into a mission where the guy has explained "Fight a ghost because it's scary" don't load another scene for 2 minutes so he can say "Good luck" and then load the actual game. That pisses us off and belongs in hell or in just one scene thanks.
Oh and stop stealing stuff from the Zelda series and some other series for that game, it was TOO obvious.

ok all i have to say is...54. you made me laugh.

and....

i dont know how Secret rings is...
but i do know we should just stick with the old story!!

thats what makes a videogame!

u have this awsum character,who has this like lifelong enemy who by the look of him just really annoys you.(or u just want to beat the crap outta him the minute u see him)and then you go on a crazy journey just getting closer..and closer...and closer to actully beating the crap outta him.
and when u finally get to beat him, you get this feeling like "YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!finally!!"

screw taking old school games and making them long ass adventure games.