Sonic Gimmicks!

edited August 2010 in General Chat
I have always thought that sonic in 3D graphics could actually work... If they didn't add all these gimmicks! I mean, come on! A werehog? An over sized sword? They also think they have way to many characters, I mean, I can't even remember a single one of the names of the new characters.

Chat here about the worst gimmicks sonic the hedgehog has ever gotten into! Also chat about the new games coming out. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and Sonic colours. Will they have gimmicks? From what I have seen, Sonic Colours might but Sonic the Hedgehog 4 looks quite promising. Share your thoughts here!
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Comments

  • edited July 2010
    I thought the whole sword thing worked out pretty well. The werehog sucks though. I can't complain about the rest of Unleashed.

    The worst offender is Sonic Adventure. Big the Cat. Seriously, It's a Sonic game. They decided to put in one charater who has no speed at all and only has small arenas where he has to fish for a FROG. Oh and if you fail to get a fish you had you lose a life.

    I have yet to get past the first stage of Big's story because of glitches and the dang frog WILL NOT stay on the hook for any amount of time. All of the others I can get complete.

    Really, whose bright idea was it to put a fishing mode in a sonic game
  • edited July 2010
    The good thing, however, is that Sonic Colors is supposed to be looking good, but then again, I found this one picture when I googled it, which is 80% accurate:

    14dhi1d.jpg
  • edited July 2010
    Well I heard sonic colors gimmic was "all levels being like the daytime stages of unleashed" And i have to admit unleashed's daytime stages where fun and fast. And nightime stages I did like but i will admit it wasnt sonic.
  • edited July 2010
    Gman5852 wrote: »
    Well I heard sonic colors gimmic was "all levels being like the daytime stages of unleashed" And i have to admit unleashed's daytime stages where fun and fast. And nightime stages I did like but i will admit it wasnt sonic.

    I actually really liked sonic unleashed daytime stages as well, but I have seen some of his powerups in sonic colours. One is like a drill. Sonic can dig threw the ground! Wow! That's so new! *Cough Cough* Super Mario Galaxy 2.

    If you also haven't noticed the fact that sonic games have similar titles to other things, or similar aspects. Let me show you.

    Sonic Unleashed: Star Wars The force unleashed. Funny thing is they were released close together. Sonic Unleashed was released November 18 2008. And Star Wars The force unleashed was released September 16 2008.
    Sonic and the black knight: The dark knight
    Sonic Colours: Super Mario Galaxy 2
    Although they don't have similar names, Sonic has the drill in sonic colours and mario has a drill in super mario galaxy.
  • edited July 2010
    benzelz wrote: »

    Sonic Unleashed: Star Wars The force unleashed. Funny thing is they were released close together. Sonic Unleashed was released November 18 2008. And Star Wars The force unleashed was released September 16 2008.
    Sonic and the black knight: The dark knight

    That's... tenuous, at best. "Unleashed" and "Knight" are both extremely common words used in titles.
  • edited July 2010
    ShaggE wrote: »
    That's... tenuous, at best. "Unleashed" and "Knight" are both extremely common words used in titles.

    Ok, maybe you are right. But the drill, Sega must have copied nintendo!
  • edited July 2010
    or maybe drills have been used in a lot of games
  • edited July 2010
    Yeah, you could say that Super Mario Galaxy 2 was copying... err, I don't know, "Drill Sim 2.0?"

    Oh, and watch this video:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVI6Agm1-kY

    Discuss.
  • edited July 2010
    Video gaming itself is a gimmick. Come on.
  • edited July 2010
    I still think the whole 'different gameplay aspects in my Sonic game is not... Sonic!' explanation is a faulty way of thinking. Walking around planets in a 3D perspective, or running around a boss to grab him and then throwing him out of the area... Those are not "Mario" either, but it works! As such, the levels where you fly with Tornado in Sonic Adventure titles are not that Sonic-y, but not much people had problems with it. In fact, I liked those sequences.

    It's not the new gameplay aspects that creates the problems (it adds a variety to any game), it's the overusage of it. Werehog wasn't the most creative thing after the Snickers bars, I know, but still, his levels could be less encountered, and maybe could have more than just slashing enemies and gathering keys to open doors in order to slash more enemies. Like, you know, as he's a Werehog now, he could jump higher and maybe would be more agile so he could jump on platforms to get into the right area to fight a boss or whatnot. You know, like a PLATFORMER. I'm pretty sure if it was like that, noone would despise the Werehog. He had the potential. I mean SMG has a Bee Mari*cough*.

    Another thing that has been bothering me is that people keep saying Sonic franchise has too much characters. Um, since WHEN this makes a problem in ANY franchise? People likes variety, different characters with different characteristics and different gameplay aspects. In fact, the Adventure titles and Advance titles were sold well because of the variety aspects. It works especially well in handheld games. My guess is that in some Sonic games, especially the horror named Sonic '06, sometimes it gives you the control of another character you chose from the main menu. Such as playing as Tails while controlling Sonic, or Rouge while controlling Shadow. That means they had to code more than 3 playable characters, and we know that Sonic '06 hit the markets before appropriate amount of testing. The supporting characters, because of this, were all glitchy (even glitchier than the main characters) and we didn't want to play as them, but still the game was handing those to us against our will. I'll keep saying, more characters is not a problem in itself. The problem is that we don't get to choose, sometimes.

    BTW I think "totally going back to the roots" will destroy Sonic completely, rather than digging him up from the grave.
  • edited July 2010
    Falanca wrote: »
    Another thing that has been bothering me is that people keep saying Sonic franchise has too much characters. Um, since WHEN this makes a problem in ANY franchise? People likes variety, different characters with different characteristics and different gameplay aspects.

    Gameplay aspects for each individual character? Um, in my opinion, the different characters are way to similar. They only need Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Dr Eggman. I mean, why do they need other characters. I have to admit, shadow is cool, but those are the only characters they need to make a perfect sonic game.

    Oh yeah, and whats up with the crocodile dude?

    Vector_the_Crocodile.jpg
  • edited July 2010
    Sonic started to suck when the called Robotnik Eggman, at least in the English language version. I really hope going to the series' roots works, retro throwbacks work: New Super Mario Bros, Megaman 9 and 10.
  • edited July 2010
    Patters, You know that in the first game and all of the japanese games Robotnik was called Eggman, right? So by starting to call him Eggman again they were going back to their roots/
  • edited July 2010
    benzelz wrote: »
    Sonic can dig threw the ground! Wow! That's so new! *Cough Cough* Super Mario Galaxy 2.

    However, in Colors you can actually control the drill, as in Mario you drill straight forward.

    Drilling is nothing new. Dig Dug is perhaps one of the first games with drilling. And wouldn't you know it, people ripped off that too!
    I saw a worker doing road construction, and guess what?
    He was drilling through the ground!
    What a rip off! He should be fired for that, right?
  • edited July 2010
    You may be right, but listen to this.

    Super Mario Galaxy:
    Yoshi has coloured fruits that make him more powerful. Like making him fly.

    Sonic Colours:
    Sonic has coloured fruit that will make him more powerful.

    What? There exactly the same! I think Sega is copying Nintendo, I really do...
  • edited July 2010
    benzelz wrote: »
    You may be right, but listen to this.

    Super Mario Galaxy:
    Yoshi has coloured fruits that make him more powerful. Like making him fly.

    Sonic Colours:
    Sonic has coloured fruit that will make him more powerful.

    What? There exactly the same! I think Sega is copying Nintendo, I really do...

    I won't be surprised if Sonic can fly in Sonic Colours.
  • edited July 2010
    benzelz wrote: »
    Gameplay aspects for each individual character? Um, in my opinion, the different characters are way to similar. They only need Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Dr Eggman. I mean, why do they need other characters. I have to admit, shadow is cool, but those are the only characters they need to make a perfect sonic game.

    Oh yeah, and whats up with the crocodile dude?

    Vector_the_Crocodile.jpg

    You do know that Vector is a classic Sonic character right? He pre-dated Shadow by a good 5+ years.

    Ever since Sonic '06 I haven't been able to look at Sonic the same. That game makes Unleashed looks like the holy grail... Unleashed is still a piece of shit, don't get me wrong... The daytime walking controls feel too stiff & too loose at the same time (as strange as that sounds) & 30 minutes is to long to spend on a boring ass hack n' slash stage. IMHO, the only way to revive Sonic is to make Sonic Adventure 3 (from a gameplay standpoint).
  • edited July 2010
    benzelz wrote: »
    You may be right, but listen to this.

    Super Mario Galaxy:
    Yoshi has coloured fruits that make him more powerful. Like making him fly.

    Sonic Colours:
    Sonic has coloured fruit that will make him more powerful.

    What? There exactly the same! I think Sega is copying Nintendo, I really do...

    Sonic Colors has been in development for a while now.... I sincerely doubt that they just decided to stop development after playing SMG2 just so they could steal Nintendo's idea. Powerups are common in videogames... plus Sonic Colors doesn't have fruit as powerups anyways... if anything they are aliens
  • edited July 2010
    You do know that Vector is a classic Sonic character right? He pre-dated Shadow by a good 5+ years.

    I know that vector has been around along time, but since when has he been important? Besides, they don't even need shadow. Shadow is one of the only characters to offer new and NOT POINTLESS gameplay aspects.
  • edited July 2010
    benzelz wrote: »
    I know that vector has been around along time, but since when has he been important? Besides, they don't even need shadow. Shadow is one of the only characters to offer new and NOT POINTLESS gameplay aspects.

    Shadow is one of my favorite sonic characters, I was sad when he
    "died"
    in adventure 2.
  • edited July 2010
    Remolay wrote: »
    Patters, You know that in the first game and all of the japanese games Robotnik was called Eggman, right? So by starting to call him Eggman again they were going back to their roots/
    patters wrote: »
    Sonic started to suck when the called Robotnik Eggman, at least in the English language version.

    My version of Sonic the Hedgehog called him Robotnik. Robotnik to me, is simply a better name, where Eggman is awful. The reason Mario is still relevant where Sonic is not is likely due to the variety of the games, Galaxy, Sunshine and 64 are incredibly different while each remains a platformer. The latest sonic games have tried this, but the actual game play is uninspiring. A fairly complex narrative does not suit the series, in the same way it isn't in Mario.
  • edited July 2010
    patters wrote: »
    My version of Sonic the Hedgehog called him Robotnik. Robotnik to me, is simply a better name, where Eggman is awful. The reason Mario is still relevant where Sonic is not is likely due to the variety of the games, Galaxy, Sunshine and 64 are incredibly different while each remains a platformer. The latest sonic games have tried this, but the actual game play is uninspiring. A fairly complex narrative does not suit the series, in the same way it isn't in Mario.

    I have to agree about that complex narrative thing. I liked Sonic Adventure 1 & 2's stories... but not much afterwards

    Case in point...
    Human Princess/Blue Giant Headed Hedgehog Romance

    sonicelise.jpg
  • edited July 2010
    in the 1st adventure games Sonic was roughly half the size of an adult human female.

    In that, roughly a foot smaller than the princess. Remember when the only human was Eggman? those were the days.

    Also, first game with a real gimmick, Sonic CD, time Travel. Changed the stage layout for some reason.

    I liked the mid bosses in 3/Knuckles though
  • edited July 2010
    Yeah, I've never been that fond of Sonic CD, the time travel aspect detracts from the gameplay and the levels look strange when you can see rings from one of the alternate time zones.

    Sonic Battle for the Game Boy Advance was pretty bad.

    Sonic Spinball was a massive gimmick that worked so damn well. Love that game.

    To the people complaining about new characters in the games - don't forget there were several in the 90s - Sonic, Tails, Robotnik/Eggman, Metal Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Mighty, Ray.

    Admittedly, aside from Shadow, the newer characters have been largely unremarkable and I'd rather just play as the core three.
  • edited July 2010
    Yeah, I've never been that fond of Sonic CD, the time travel aspect detracts from the gameplay and the levels look strange when you can see rings from one of the alternate time zones.

    Sonic Battle for the Game Boy Advance was pretty bad.

    Sonic Spinball was a massive gimmick that worked so damn well. Love that game.

    To the people complaining about new characters in the games - don't forget there were several in the 90s - Sonic, Tails, Robotnik/Eggman, Metal Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Mighty, Ray.

    Admittedly, aside from Shadow, the newer characters have been largely unremarkable and I'd rather just play as the core three.

    Totally Agree!
  • edited July 2010
    im happy for sonic 4 but sonic colors is bull $@#$#@% i mean the flying colors alien things are just too much
  • edited July 2010
    Gogeta504 wrote: »
    im happy for sonic 4 but sonic colors is bull $@#$#@% i mean the flying colors alien things are just too much

    Once again, I must stress that you can never judge a game based on screenshots or concept.

    If I remember correctly (& I know that I do), people claimed that Windwaker was going to be a complete & total piece of garbage based on it's screenshots & game footage. Now it is regarded as one of the Top 5 Gamecube games.
  • edited July 2010
    Once again, I must stress that you can never judge a game based on screenshots or concept.

    If I remember correctly (& I know that I do), people claimed that Windwaker was going to be a complete & total piece of garbage based on it's screenshots & game footage. Now it is regarded as one of the Top 5 Gamecube games.

    Exactly! Never judge a game by its screenshots!
  • edited July 2010
    Once again, I must stress that you can never judge a game based on screenshots or concept.

    If I remember correctly (& I know that I do), people claimed that Windwaker was going to be a complete & total piece of garbage based on it's screenshots & game footage. Now it is regarded as one of the Top 5 Gamecube games.

    I believe they called it wimpy kids game because the graphics where so kiddish but if that was true than tf2 and conker would both be rated E for everyone.
  • edited July 2010
    Sonic Spinball was a massive gimmick that worked so damn well. Love that game.

    Yes technically the only true difference is controlling bumpers. sonic spun like that in the old games and in the game you can still control sonic as if you where playing sonic one(it isnt reccomended though)

    Now i want to figure out how i played that game. dont have it on virtual console if it was and that is where i ge tmy classic sonic fix.
  • edited July 2010
    Gman5852 wrote: »
    Yes technically the only true difference is controlling bumpers. sonic spun like that in the old games and in the game you can still control sonic as if you where playing sonic one(it isnt reccomended though)

    Now i want to figure out how i played that game. dont have it on virtual console if it was and that is where i ge tmy classic sonic fix.

    Did you play it on one of the sonic collections for PS2 or something?
  • edited July 2010
    benzelz wrote: »
    I know that vector has been around along time, but since when has he been important? Besides, they don't even need shadow. Shadow is one of the only characters to offer new and NOT POINTLESS gameplay aspects.

    It's like playing Sam and Max Episode 203, coming to the very end and whining about playing as Jurgen's Monster.

    To be a Sonic fan, you don't have to play as Sonic, and a character doesn't have to be IMPORTANT (or, let's say, the aspects of a character's importance may vary) in order to play as another character.

    Vector was only playable in Sonic Heroes (other than Knuckles' Chaotix, which is a spinoff, and it's the SOLE PURPOSE of a spinoff that you play as OTHER characters) and in his levels, gameplay was different since you had to collect money.
  • edited July 2010
    I'd say Sonic Adventure 2 was the highpoint of 3D Sonic games. It all went downhill from there. I enjoyed Unleashed's daytime stages, but I never even finished the game because the night stages were so terrible.
  • edited July 2010
    Whoevers dumb idea was it to add the shitload of characters that honestly shouldn't belong in game needs to get beaten to the pulse, was adding Amy really necessary? I know she appeared in some manga of sonic but it was like she was added for the fangirls sake of Sonic. Shadow was one of the only few characters I liked, which he got a better game than what we already have.

    The music. What irks me is that most of the music seems WAY out of place for some of sonics games, like rock music during the black knight. Wouldn't just medevil like scores be better than rock? I liked how Unleashed had a nice change of pace with the music.
  • edited July 2010
    Wow... that is quite possibly the most stupifying thing that I have ever read.

    A. Amy comes from Sonic CD & is considered by most as one of the core 4 characters (in actuality she predates Knuckles by almost a year). To some degree I agree about other characters... but only those created AFTER Sonic Adventure 2.

    B. I can barely understand the rest of your post
  • edited July 2010
    Whoevers dumb idea was it to add the shitload of characters that honestly shouldn't belong in game needs to get beaten to the pulse, was adding Amy really necessary? I know she appeared in some manga of sonic but it was like she was added for the fangirls sake of Sonic. Shadow was one of the only few characters I liked, which he got a better game than what we already have.

    Yeah, whoever thought of adding a crapload of different, varying characters in a video game? It only worked on Pokemon!

    Seriously pal, you think it's the necessity or the likability? Surely it's a trick question since Amy isn't a pretty much liked character (though she's my second favorite in all the franchise), but she is a distinct character in a franchise, and adds variety -both as a game character or a comic book character. Well, in much of the games which she was playable she had a clunky gameplay (She was painful to move in Sonic Adventure, and in Sonic Advance 1 or 3 [if you don't pair her with Sonic] playing the game gets insanely hard if you don't get the hang of it) and this -with her obsessive personality- makes people hate her.

    In fact, even in a thread inside of a forum that's not related to SEGA or Sonic franchise, I guess it's -at least- the third time I've got to read that kind of a post; "Sonic franchise has too many characters", which is bullshit. And it turns out all the people posting that kind of a post does that to, actually, point out hatred towards a significant character. You don't like Amy, another guy here doesn't like Vector, well then, why not saying that they are useless? It seems to be a trendy thing, being done on most of the forum boards and all. I don't like Shadow or Blaze the Cat, but I'm not trying to boot them out of the franchise just because I hate them. I know there are people having sympathy over those characters as well.

    And the worst part of it, SEGA actually listens to those "opinions" as "fan feedback". Any of you watched Angry Joe's E3 review with Sonic Team? They literally said "We tried everything, we've found out that we can't satisfy our hungry fans, yet still some 12-year old fans are whining replying to us that we should go back to the roots. So fuck everything WE stand for, here, we made Sonic 4!". And what we got is that they remade the entire Green Hill Zone with clunky animation with the same old lack of other characters, same old power ups, same old end boss, and they're trying to sell us that. I think they should just sell Sonic to Nintendo or to another platformer developer. At least they'll respect the franchise and won't rape the fate of the blue hedgehog under the hands of the inconsistent opinions of fans.

    *ahem* Yeah... Err. I like Amy! Back off!
  • edited July 2010
    The second they added all the new characters in was the second Sonic stopped being good, that's all i'm saying
  • edited July 2010
    I say it's just a mere coincidence. What made Sonic go bad is a totally different aspect.
  • edited July 2010
    Falanca wrote: »
    And the worst part of it, SEGA actually listens to those "opinions" as "fan feedback". Any of you watched Angry Joe's E3 review with Sonic Team? They literally said "We tried everything, we've found out that we can't satisfy our hungry fans, yet still some 12-year old fans are whining replying to us that we should go back to the roots. So fuck everything WE stand for, here, we made Sonic 4!". And what we got is that they remade the entire Green Hill Zone with clunky animation with the same old lack of other characters, same old power ups, same old end boss, and they're trying to sell us that. I think they should just sell Sonic to Nintendo or to another platformer developer. At least they'll respect the franchise and won't rape the fate of the blue hedgehog under the hands of the inconsistent opinions of fans.
    That, my friend is the joys of fanboys.

    I honestly feel sorry for a lot of developers of popular franchises. Fanboy's will complain at anything they do. You know, the fans who wanted the old 2D sonics are now complaining that they used the wrong Sonic model, and consequently hate the game without even playing it. I mean really? They're going to complain over a bloody sprite? Really? Most recently Square Enix have been getting shit over the Final Fantasy series. Fans complained that XII was too open, so they rectified that in XIII. What did they get? More complaining... Not to mention the amount of people who hated the game as soon as word got out there wouldn't be any towns. You should at least play the damn game before you decide.

    Going back to it's roots is a saying that really pisses me off. Why? Just why? Sure, those games were amazing at the time, I loved the original Sonic games at the time, loved the old Final Fantasys too. However, now, if you played those games without that feeling of nostalgia, I assure you, you would find those games heavily outdated and frustrating to play. Not to mention Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 were amazing games, they worked perfectly well in 3d, why does it need to go back to it's roots?

    Yeah, as you can gather, I hate fanboys. Sort of went off on a bit of a rant there, apologies.

    In my opinion, Sonic works fine with 3d, and the extra characters can work fine too, if their gameplay is done well. My biggest problem with the latest Sonic games have been the level design and the gameplay itself. The daytime levels in Unleashed were really fun, it's just a shame that the awful werehog levels outnumbered those 3 to 1. As for Sonic 06, if it wasn't for the poor level design, the glitches and the loading screens, I think it could have been a decent game, if we're ignoring the plot. It was never the 3d or characters which ruined the series, as shown by how great Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 were. They were amazingly fun to play as, excluding perhaps those Big the Cat fishing levels.
  • edited July 2010
    I think the main problem is SonicTeam seem to be unable to make a decent 3D Sonic game now and added to the fact that so many people wanted a 2D Sonic game they obviously decided to try something new, which is in fact something old.

    I'm looking forward to Sonic 4. Sure, it just looks like the first game but I think that'll just be an introductory 'nostalgia' level.

    My only concern so far is that leaked footage of the mine cart that you control by rotating the screen.
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