Rev Up Those Sonic Cycles

[Rökkan]

I still don't like how Modern Sonic's gameplay mostly forces you forward at high speeds. It only seems to slow down when you go sidescrolling which defeats the purpose of a perfect 3D Sonic experience. But then again this has been a complaint of mine for a while and it doesn't look like they plan to change it.

I think when the levels start looking more like M. C. Escher artwork is when I think the ultimate 3D Sonic experience will be realized. 3D is not one direction, it should allow you to go all over the place.

I've been waiting for someone to mention having a problem with Modern Sonic's gameplay.

I understand the plight I do,but I mean Sonic's selling feature is he's the worlds fastest Hedgehog who thinks a lot of himself and the fact no one can catch him right? That was the tagline and thought process I was aware of when Sonic first hit the Genesis. My question is why can't you love Modern Sonic for what he is?

The creators of Crash Bandicoot even claimed that Crash was designed off Sonic. Crash initial project title was "Sonics' Butt". I replayed Crash 1+2 and it's true. It's a old Sonic Genesis game only aimed at Sonic's butt (Like Modern Sonic has kinda been doing for the past couple of games except Colours, Day levels, Adv, Adv2B being doing right) which i mean to say there's a lot of grabbing stuff a lot of jumping keeping an eye out for good items and goodies. The only difference between the two is that one is doing it slower than the other. I get the whole i want more control of the Character king of deal but to deviate consistently would probably be more trouble than it's worth what with the whole Original Sonic part to compensate.

All I'm saying Koop, and to anyone else who see's problems with modern is that it's easy to call SEGA lazy, but when you think about who Sonic is and what he does, I mean outside of the realm of the Genesis games you were given because that's the interpretation and rendition we were given as kids not the personification of who Sonic is and what he does.

Sorry for the wall of text guys. I guess it's kinda stupid to get methodical and stupid on a Sonic game of all things.

Crash Bandicoot and Sonic aren't that similar in gameplay. It is pretty clear that they had a lot of inspiration from Sonic and they were fans of it (basically Naughty Dog freaked out when they got Hirokazu Yasuhara on their company). As you said, there's a lot of jumping and keeping an eye for secret goodies, but Sonic's entire game design was done with speed in mind. For instance, getting hit by an enemy doesn't represent almost any danger to your lives, you'll always have at least one ring with you, but it does represent a big-ass danger to your time-attacking. Falling down platforms won't get you killed, there's always a path below it, but it will throw you to a path that will obligate you to slow down a lot or just isn't as fast as the upper path. They made the game so that players could try to speed their way through the level without fearing that going too fast would make you get killed easier - but you must be skillful to keep that speed throughout the level. (and Takashi Iizuka said the opposite about that on an interview, proving how much he knows about the classics - Nothing)

Anyway, I know that I'd also want a 3D Sonic that had more of that free exploration that 2D Sonic has, but actually using the depth of 3D levels to make the levels seem even more vivid and vast than those giant levels from Sonic 3 and Sonic CD, but I'm okay with this, even though I think that SEGA is being lazy with Modern Sonic's gameplay, basically finding something that works well and just sticking with it and repeating it several times over like if it was a MAGIC FORMULA, barely trying to improve it (already ranted here about how on Unleashed and Generations, you constantly get boost power for doing nothing other than holding forward, and how Unleashed's boost system was a step backwards from Rush, which basically tried to apply the game design of the classics, speed = skill, to a more modern, fast-paced gameplay) but then again, I'm not sure whether the Modern Sonic gameplay on Generations addresses a lot of issues people had on the day-time levels of Unleashed (like REALLY CHEAP deaths and awful drifting and jumping controls). Colors had a really good level design, but half of its merit goes to the fact that it used the Color abilities really well - most of its level design was 2D platforming sections instead of behind-the-hog fast-paced running sections, and it was made by another team than the one working on Generations as far as I can gather, so I guess we have to wait and see.