CapnCloudchaser

At the time of release I remember Sonic Adventure getting a lot of good reviews and praise. I also remember Sonic and the Secret Rings getting good reviews and praise from reviewers that rightfully blasted away Sonic 06. I didn't like SatSR either to be honest.

I also don't understand the Sonic CD comment. Surely Sonic 3 plugged into Sonic and Knuckles was the best Sonic experience to be had? :D

I don't understand the whole "Dismantle Sonic Team!" thing. They actually brought in a new group of people, all old school Sonic fans, to develop Sonic Unleashed. You want to throw them out and bring back the people that made Sonic 06? Sonic Unleashed is a step in the right direction, give them time.

I really don't understand the mentality of "Sonic Team does not care" about how Sonic Unleashed was created.

A whole new team was brought in for Unleashed, that consisted of a lot of people from college and old school Sonic fans, excited to be working on such a huge project. As such, Sonic Unleashed was the first game this 'new' Sonic Team made, and for a first go, it was certainly a lot better than older 3D Sonic games, and the daytime stages are a step in the right direction, and I reckon it will be their focus from now on, now they've found what works and what obviously doesn't.

The [Xbox 360/PS3] game is littered with so many hidden touches, small fan services, a lot of detail, polish, great graphics, great music, to me all of these things and more speak of a team that actually cared enough to put in as much effort as they could. The budget for the game was certainly more than any other Sega game outsideof Shenmue, so of course they cared about it.

If you think Sonic Unleashed represents Sonic's death, you probably didn't play Sonic 06 >_> Sonic Unleashed is him trying to get back on his feet. It will take some time, but it is a step in the right direction. You won't see him take a break though, sorry; they need low budget games like Sonic and the Black Knight to raise up enough money to pay for a better Sonic game.

Whoo, finally something to get excited about for 2009!

"I'll agree that the teased romance between Sonic and Princess Elise made no sense and had me on the point of retching at times.  I'll further agree that the storytelling in Sonic games, in general, has been pretty bad for years.  But if you honestly believe this is the reason why Sonic sucks, you're way off the mark.  The reason Sonic sucks is because the gameplay falls short of expectations every time."

When I first heard about Let's Tap, it sounded like a really bad idea.

However, after watching the extended gameplay trailer, I'm completely won over. It actually looks rather fun and I'm obsessed with the music:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/43364.html

I've watched this trailer about twenty times now :O

"CapnCloudchaser said:

"LCad said:

"Vinchenzo said:

If you're 12.

Owned."

Wow, what thought out and intelligent responses.
"

Wow, what a creepy individual who relates to Sonic's attitude and personality. As AuthenticM stated, the more adult games are the ones that it's fine to be emotional with. I find Half-Life the best example, as always. Sonic games are convoluted, awkward, and you can't really relate with a wild animal, no matter how cute they are. We don't go to Sonic for a story, we go to him for speed and a nostalgic feel when he use to be in quality games."

"Vinchenzo said:

If you're 12.

Owned."

Having now played through Unleashed, I really do think that the daytime stages are awesome and a step in the right direction, they just need more platforming elements thrown in there to slow him down, and his controls need a bit of work too to slow him down some more and make him less slippery.

Some levels have some nice sections where you jump from platform to platform etc, perhaps if they just had more of those, or levels that focussed just on those with smaller, shorter levels for speed. Unleashed sorta does that anyway, as there are some shorter stages in there that focus on speed, usually just completely 2D as well.

I disagree with your post on two counts.

Firstly, you can't blame this one single person for 'fucking up' the Sonic franchise. A whole team of people work on a series like Sonic, from characterisation to the actual games themselves, and yeah, a lot of blood, sweat and tears go into producing a game. If the gameplay of Sonic had been perfect from day one, then no one would have really cared about the story or characterisation of Sonic. I don't believe that the story or characters make or break a game, although they certainly help with plot heavy games, but it is the gameplay experience itself that makes or breaks the game; with a good game, all dodgy stories and voice acting are usually forgiven. The Zelda series, to me, have appaling story and characterisation, but I forgive it and put up with it because the Zelda games are good games, for example. When Sega eventually get Sonic games spot on right, then no one will really care about anything else.

Secondly, games have evolved a long way from the 8/16 bit era. Gamers want their games to have depth, meaning and good characterisation. That's not applicable to all game types, but a lot of people want games and the game industry to evolve into a more mature territory with games that have realistic characters and a plot that can rival any good film. Game scripting isn't quite up their yet with films, but they are getting there and have the potential to become a medium that is more than just killing a lot of people or whatever. It's only natural that a series like Sonic evolves that way too, because characterisation and story does give the game meaning, other than being fun.

I'll admit that the story and characterisation of Sonic hasn't been handled very well (I love Sonic Adventure, but the cutscenes really make me cringe), but it's getting better, and I personally like exploring the personality of Sonic himself. The 2D games couldn't really represent his attitude or character particularly well, which is why we had comics and cartoons, whereas now we can incorperate that into the games themselves. I think the cutscenes of Unleashed are quite low key and charming, actually! I really hated Sonic 06 for reasons I won't go into :(

Not all Sonic fans are furries. As Akinori Nishiyama said, people relate to his attitude and personality.