Steve Galgas

Stop hating on the bearded guinea pig!

I can't say Nintendogs was my favorite game... I lost interest in it pretty quickly, actually. I really wanted to see the dog grow and evolve a little more than it did. On the other hand, I do think it deserves to be on such a list for its innovate use of the DS's controls to interact with the dog. "Petting" it, coaxing it into learning new tricks, the voice commands... I haven't seen a DS title since that lives up to the potential of the system. I'd like developers to have learned something from Nintendogs, but I don't think many did.

@45:

Hmmm.... Video games or Constitutional rights? Tough decision.

Mii Crossing! Yes! Let's hope. Just a few days ago, I commented on how I thought Animal Crossing would have been the perfect thing to have integrate into the Wii interface. I really hope they go this direction.

Nice! I've been waiting for game developers to start integrating things like a system's internal clock and the weather channel into something other than Animal Crossing (Ooh! Local weather in Animal Crossing! What an idea!)

You guys are OBSESSED. Leave Lesko alone. He's looking a bit frightened.

http://www.mr-grant.com

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.

If Nintendo were really smart, they would have made the new Animal Crossing integrated with the Wii system, a la Miis, or maybe more appropriately now, Playstation Home. Wouldn't it rock if AC came bundled on the system, and players used it to navigate their system and communicate with other Wii players?

I had the same thing happen to me when Resident Evil 4 came out.

Dammit... I have no idea if my previous comment made it through or not. At any rate, I thought I should plug a series of online educational activities I illustrate for...

http://www.edheads.org

Fun stuff! Check 'em out.