Games you like that everyone hates

[Gwen]

Here's how modern Sonic games work and why most people don't realize how bad they can be:

Do anything that is slightly against what the regular player might do or what seems to be the most straightforward way of getting through anything. Basically, play the game with some curiosity.

Then you'll see how much the game fucks you over.

Part of it is because all the levels are designed as a big cluster of platforms on an abyss, so getting slightly offtrack will make you fall off, but it's mostly because the designers don't look at how their game allows the player to take several courses of action and designs level sections with only one course of action in mind, making it so that if you take any other action or even DO the intended action however in a SLIGHT DIFFERENT WAY you will get screwed over. I.E.: There's a part on Frog Forest in which you take a spring to land on a platform that's upwards and forward to where you are, and if you do that with any formation that's not Fly, your character will boost forward a bit and fall off the platform and die every fucking time.

Some might argue against this "big cluster of platforms on a big abyss" saying that "well it's 3D so levels are like that in 3D" (which doesn't really cover it, after all, invisible walls are A Thing but whatever), but goddamn Dimps thought it was a REAL FUN IDEA to implement this same design in every game after the first Sonic Advance.

Guys, if you are making a level in a 2D game with "layers" of ground, how will I know that I can safely fall from here and that there's going to be a path below that saves me? This feels like pulling the carpet off your feet. And yes, sometimes it can be obvious when there mustn't be a ground below to save you, but a lot of times, you fall off to your death by simply backtracking a bit or thinking that you are finding out a secret room or a shortcut and SPECIALLY for trying to do ANYTHING on something that's supposed to be purely automatic and cinematic (and most of the times you can't know whether something is automatic or not, since sometimes you also die for just holding forward instead of jumping off where you are or something like that)


However I have some doubts whether everyone that doesn't see how glitched and lazily designed doesn't really face those mistakes. I think you guys actually die because of things like that but, for some strange and sad reason, you think that it was actually your fault and not the game's. Like "oh DUH why did I have any curiosity or thought there would be an extra life or something here, I am so dumb I shouldn't explore at all of COURSE" or "CLEARLY I wasn't supposed to press the button at this moment here it was OBVIOUS and INTUITIVE I just DIDN'T SEE IT let me re-do this a couple more times until I figure out how to get it right"

Honestly, I'd play with friends and we'd have a blast. Stuff probably happened occasionally, but I didn't notice anything at all, if I died, I waited to respawn and jumped back into playing, because the fact is, I died, no amount of speculation or if it was my fault or not was going to change it. So I enjoyed the game.