Sonic: Dying or Revived?

[Flareon1990]

Alright, we all have an opinion on whether the blue blur is dying a painful death, or rising back to respectability. I want to know what all you gamers think.

There's no arguing Sonic was an elite franchise in the beginning. Sega's mascot. STILL Sega's mascot. A formidable rival for Mario. Now that Sega has joined forces with Nintendo, and with the enhancements of graphics, Sonic (in the past) has lost his way in this world.

As a 2D game, Sonic was incredible. The fast-paced platforming action didn't want to make you blink. With the emergence of 3D gameplay, Sonic has lost his appeal.

Developers have valiantly (Sonic Unleased, Sonic Chronicles, maybe Sonic and the Secret Rings) and not so valiantly (Sonic the Hedgehog-XB360) tried to revive him to his glory days. Is it working?

Has Sonic risen back to respectability? Or is his franchise headed for the scrapheap?

 

[Chris]

Neither of the three "valiantly" games you've mentioned have Sonic being attempted to be revived to his glory days. Why? Sonic didn't transform into arm stretching werehogs, didn't participate in RPGs nor moved in an on-rails fashion in any of his old days.

Sonic Advance and Rush are better examples.


As for the answer to your question, no. Sonic has not gone back to being respected. With the way SEGA is going, none of their franchises ever will. Sonic is a joke, Phantasy Star is a shadow of itself, NiGHTS came and went, Joe Musashi hung up his outfit again, and Golden Axe has been shat on by Secret Level, the same wonderful folks that shat on Final Fight with Streetwise.

Ever since the merger with Sammy, SEGA has become horrible. Prior to the merger, we finally saw some decent life returning to old classics like ToeJam & Earl, Panzer Dragoon and Shinobi. What happened? Sammy came along, SEGA started shitting on its own franchises and giving them to people who have little to no knowledge in gaming.

Sonic Team also became completely full of themselves and forgot what it meant to make good games once the Dreamcast was gone.

 

[S.Suikun]

Topics about the rise and fall (and rebirth, according to a few comedians) of Sonic have pretty much run their course as much as the blue blur himself.

As tempted as I am to take an in-depth glance at nearly every modern Sonic title and explain why it spits upon past successes, it would be no different than my typical mantra. You know, the one about how Sega fails to realize the simplicity and the firm mechanics that made this series good at one time with their repeated attempts to "enhance" the hedgehog with wayward gimmicks and unforgiveable technical framework. I've gone down that road too many times before about how Sonic died long ago and is now suffering a hellish afterlife, and as each new title passes, the statement holds ever truer.

Yeah, how pointless was that almost-rant?

 

[Palamon]

>_> I hate sonic so i picked choice one sorry

 

[Gravy]

It's not so much the gameplay (which isn't too hot anyway) that doesn't appeal to me anymore, but the overall atmosphere of the series. It's gone down this frankly bizarre path of trying to make the Sonic universe into this edgy, action based and occassionally 'dark' place for the cartoon animals to live in, riddled with super streamlined mecha enemies and crumbling cities or dank forests and that's never sat too well with me.
Throw in a bunch of weird gimmicks like swords and, uhh, 'Werehogs', and it all comes across as them simply not knowing what the hell this character is or was about anymore.

 

[Dattebayo]

I don't think the Sonic franchise is going downhill. I think these kind of statements are only in the minds of old-school Sonic fans.

 

[Focus Aipom]

It's fun but many of the games are pretty repititive nowadays

 

[Chris]

I don't think the Sonic franchise is going downhill. I think these kind of statements are only in the minds of old-school Sonic fans.

Do you know why? Because the Sonic games of today resemble NOTHING that we grew up with. It doesn't resemble what made Sonic so great in the first place.

Besides, the god awful mediocrity of most of the games today isn't just being noticed by the old-school Sonic fans. Anyone with half a brain could tell you SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (not to be confused with the Genesis title that isn't fully capitalized) Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis (the GBA game) and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity are downright unplayable.

Let's look at it like this. How would you feel if Nintendo took Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom, put them in "darker" atmospheres. Not only this, but also put Mario in gameplay that didn't resemble ANY of the original platforming that made him famous, as well as rushed a new game out each year with barely any bug testing. How would you feel if Nintendo gave Luigi guns and stole vehicles, made Bowser more like a realistic dinosaur, had Mario have a cross-species love interest, and released a Mario game that lagged, had poor collision detection, had poor music and sound quality, removed part of the ending and called it a "faithful port" of the original classic title, Super Mario Bros. 3?

THAT is how Sonic is right now.

 

[bobjr]

I don't think the Sonic franchise is going downhill. I think these kind of statements are only in the minds of old-school Sonic fans.

That's partially because the best games out of the series were the older games.

I really don't hear that many convincing arguments that Sonic is still making good games, other than the "It's my opinion!" and "You just can't accept the facts!", especially when they think baseless opinions count as facts.

Anyway, besides Rush and the Advance games, there haven't been any good Sonic games since Adventure. Chronicles was only an average game, and that was made by a totally different company.

And don't get me started on the newer characters.

 

[Skater Trainer]

And don't get me started on the newer characters.

I have seriously lost count by now. They have to make a ****ing new character for the sonic series every 2 freakin' minutes. Why couldn't it just stay Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. Even 3 more than sonic is pushing it, why have so many?(Big the Cat makes be want to shoot myself)

Sonic games have been going down the shitter. I grew up on genesis sonic and I am disgusted by sonic's current state. The only good sonic I get now is the advance series and the rush series.

 

[Korobooshi Kojiro]

I don't know, I thought Jet, Omega, and even Cream were okay.

Really it's only these guys like ERAZOR DJINN, Silver, Shadow, Mesfiles-whatever, that Princess, even Blaze to an extent that are really bugging me.

 

[Rave]

Sonic is still alive? No seriously... is it?

 

[Kate]

Sonic would be a great franchise if it wasn't for poor management from Sonic Team. They refuse to accept their mistakes that they made from other games, and they refuse to take critisizm from their fans. One problem that has been there ever since Sonic hopped into the 3D world of gaming, would be the damn camera controls. They refuse to fix it. It's been a problem with nearly every single sonic game Sega spews out, the most recent example would be Sonic 360.

 

[pokemaniac10]

Personally, I didn't like any of the new characters Sega decided to add; and that's only one of the reasons why I don't like Sonic anymore.

I have to choose the first choice, seeing as how I really wish Sega would stop trying.
I'm surprised Sonic is still alive even after all these years.

 

[redpanda]

Well, I kind of liked sonic in Brawl even though I stink with him. XD I really liked Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, but none of the recent ones looked too interesting to me...

 

[Chris]

(Big the Cat makes be want to shoot myself)

I really don't get where the hatred towards Big comes from. It's like it became cool to hate him. In Adventure, his levels were short and there were barely that many to go through. Yes, his English voice was horrible as they gave him a generic meat head voice instead of the slow, fatty voice he had in the Japanese version. However, he's really not as bad as everyone's making him out to be.

If you wanna go for BAD characters, try Shadow, the birds of the Riders series, Cream, Mephilis, Silver and so forth. There should only be THREE Hedgehogs, and one of them is a fake; Sonic, Amy and Metal Sonic. That's it.

 

[Gentleman Skeleton]

Sonic IMO is on life support right now on the verge of brain death. The fanboys refuse the plug to be pulled, but unless they pull a Megaman and give us a Sonic the Hedgehog 4 that brings things back to the old school, it'll be inevitable.

 

[Ktroys]

I've always wondered if Sega's PR guys played the games that they market, but I think the answer is obvious. (Proof: Sonic, NiGHTS, PSU, Iron Man, Hulk, and most recently, Golden Axe.)

So while Sega (and Sonic) ain't dead (yet), their metaphorical plane has stalled, and unless something amazing happens, the outcome will be very messy.

 

[Krake]

I think they should make better Sonic games. I never grew up with Sonic, and the first game I played was Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Aside from the first two Advance games, I haven't bought any others after that. I think Sonic should stop shooting himself in the foot and adding a new character in every game that comes out. Is it really necessary to add ANOTHER hedgehog?

btw shouldn't this be in Other Video Game Discussion?

 

[BCVM22]

The fanboys refuse the plug to be pulled, but unless they pull a Megaman and give us a Sonic the Hedgehog 4 that brings things back to the old school, it'll be inevitable.

So while Sega (and Sonic) ain't dead (yet), their metaphorical plane has stalled, and unless something amazing happens, the outcome will be very messy.

The various games that you and those like you claim have RUINED THE CHARACTER FOREVER have been flitting about for the better part of the 2000s and yet the character still continues to make regular appearances. One would think this would serve as a capable indicator that the character isn't dying nor will he, regardless of the bubbling masses.

One would think.

I really don't get where the hatred towards Big comes from. It's like it became cool to hate him.

Someone thought it'd be a great idea to make this thread in the first place, much less title it "Sonic: Dying or Revived" and you're honestly surprised at having to wonder about this?