[General Discussion] Sonic the Hedgehog - Mediocre Madness!!!

I've been a long time Sonic fan but some of this recent stuff it just...mediocre.

I was vastly disappointed with Shadow the Hedgehog and very bored with Sonic Riders.

It saddens me that so many Sonic fans just eat this stuff up, thereby making it so there isn't really a drive to pull the whole Sonic Franchise out of the gutter.

Sometimes it just seems as though Sonic can't really do well in 3D. I hate to say that but it's what I feel. Sonic Rush was a decent/good Sonic game but IMO there hasn't been anything else that's really good for the Sonic 3D world.

Sonic Team keeps experimenting with all of these different gameplay methods, which is good, but I hope they can get something good together soon.

I don't know if many Sonic fans will put up with it for much longer. I'm depending on Sonic Next Gen, but if it flops I guess I won't be such a big Sonic fan anymore.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by GoldfishX

How is Riders, BTW? Been thinking of giving it a look.

Well, it's frustrating and hard. I found very little fun out of it besides the fact that my beloved Sonic and co. were in it. That factor kept me from completely being bored with the game

It seemed like just another mediocre game that is dressed up with your favorite characters to get a sale. Like all of those Movie-Based games.

As for the music, if anyone cares, it was decent. I loved the main theme and was glad Crush 40 wasn't in it.


BTW, Anyone else getting tired of "Crush 40" in Sonic games? I think they are getting overused now and are starting to sound generic.

Like the Shadow the Hedgehog Theme, I am. It just sounded so generic to me and I guess I'm getting tired of Crush 40. Their music is starting to sound very "similar" and less unique. After "Open Your Heart" and "Live and Learn", I got less and less interested in them. Even though they have good songs.

I think I liked Sonic Rider's music a little more because Crush 40 wasn't in it >_>

There's nowhere I can't reach.

SonicEchidna, I understand how you feel but these Sonic games are really declining.

I've loved Sonic the Hedgehog from the Genesis era but when I see him now, I usually want to vomit.

Sonic has the potential to be great but even as a big Sonic fan, I'd have to say these 3D games I've seen are pathetic.

I did love Sonic Heroes like you. It was a fun game and I still have fun playing it today (in small bursts) but at the end of the day, it doesn't appeal as a "good" game to non-sonic fans.

I usually get blinded by my Sonic love so I usually think a little better about Sonic and Sonic games but it's getting to the point where the recent games are so average...

I'd like to see a great and super fun Sonic game, not an average semi-fun one.

You may feel that Sonic has a lot of life left in him but I feel that the people Sonic is with at the moment are squeezing the life out of him.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Sonic Rush was decent. It was fun and showed people that 2D Sonic isn't completely dead.

The only thing I don't really like about it is the enemies. I miss the creative enemies in each level. Now there is only about one different enemy per level or one of those eggman shaped robots.

The current uncreative enemies are boring me. Ever since SA2, they just stopped trying to create unique level enemies.

Most amazing jew boots

I really am doubting that the Next Gen Sonic will be anything more then average.

You are right Sega.co, if they focused more on that then it would be a sucess. But then again, we haven't had a true Sonic game since SA2 so I'm curious to see how they will handle it next gen.

I'd like them to pretty much kill of Shadow from the series. I got tired of him after playing Shadow the Hedgehog

I've heard that there are plans to make more Sonic Spinoffs, like sports games maybe...*sigh* Sonic's going the way of Mario, expect with lesser quality games....

I was speaking idiomatically.

Ah yes, the Gem levels, they were the reason Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 weren't the best they could be. Many people expected running and intense action but then they got treasure hunting levels. This isn't Pirate Adventure, it's Soinc Adventure! Sonic Team trys to put so much gameplay into one of their games and usually doesn't execute it right.

A great example of this was Shadow the Hedgehog. They tired to put intense gameplay together but also tried to mix it with "find the bombs!" type missions. When the level design was so horrid that you couldn't even enjoy it. They didn't try to just make a running game. They tired to combine intense action, treasure hunting, mazes, and turrent shooting. But the level designs were so horrible you barely could enjoy any aspects of those different gameplay methods.

One flaw was that, to complete either the dark or hero side, you usually needed to find and kill ALL of the enemies from the side of your choice. This made the game very slow. The only time you got to actually run through a level is on the neutral path. Otherwise, the hero and dark missions usually bore me with the speed I had to go at to make sure I didn't miss one enemy.

Oh, just remembering the 11+ minutes it took me to find all of the Chaos creatures on the maze like level, "The Doom"...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by SuperSonic

I might be interested if they did a Sonic DDR. As for anything

else, well the Mario ones are good...so why not give it a shot?

Sonic did okay in Virtua Striker...the only thing I'd be

Mario did it, but Sonic games are nearly as good. Sonic Team doesn't have everything together like Mario.

I'd rather if Sonic Team didn't start making endless spin-offs since I they haven't even make a GREAT sonic 3D game. If they can get their Franchise base right, then I'd be fine with them trying to venture off but now I currently think they aren't ready.

Double Post:

Originally Posted by Sin Ansem

You know what? I think partly the reason why Sonic has gotten weaker in games is because of the fans. Yeah, I said it. The younger crowd eats up everything, giving Sega the okay of letting their games suck (read: be mediocre like Shadow). The older crowd is at fault too, simply because most of them are angsty fanboys that argue amongst themselves on what they want on a Sonic game. Most of them want repeats of 3&K, some want some fucked up system that'd be hard to program for (Give him 100 unique moves! SERIOUSLY?!), and some say "screw the story!" Wow, thanks for giving us Sonic Heroes, you bastards.

Can't we have a GOOD story? GOOD gameplay? AWESOME villains? Use the old characters? Sega's either pandering to their fanbase when it shouldn't count or ignoring it when they should, if they just made things good and feel like Sonic, then we wouldn't have these problems.

Wow, that is the most accurate statement that I have ever heard. It really is.

So many fans are fighting over what they want and how they want it that Sonic Team doesn't even know what to do.

It really surprises me when a game like Shadow the Hedgehog comes out and many kids say, "reviews were all wrong" and "this is the best Sonic game EVER!!!". It truly sickens me. The kids actually accept crap and actually don't want any better then a gun weilding angsty generic hedgehog.

My beloved franchise is going in the toilet. I'm truly scared to see what Sonic Team is going to attempt on Sonic Next Gen. I'm pretty sure they will try to do something to appeal to ALL fans and try to experiment some more. It's horrible, the fans actually don't let Sonic games be mediocre and then call them heaven-sent games. I just can't take it anymore.

Sin Ansem, you hit the nail right on the head. Let's do brunch sometime...

FELIPE NO

I understand what RABicle is trying to say. I've felt that way a lot when I'm playing Sonic games.

If you don't really remember, what enemy is where and what cliff is where, then you'll most likely lose a lot.

But I won't call the game mediocre because of that, I call it a different type of gameplay. It's makes for a speedy type of, "on your toes" gameplay. It's something that doesn't happen in typical platformers. I don't call it mediocre gameplay, I call it a different kind of gameplay.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

The constant cussing Shadow did in Shadow the Hedgehog just got annoying.

The way they had that in an actual Sonic game made me lose faith in Sonic Team. I just can't believe they caved in like that and put swear words in there. It's not just the fact that they actually cussed, it's more of the fact that Shadow did it so much. But I guess the extreeeeeme teens loved it or something.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Gakineko

without having an understanding of where "crappy" games lie, where's the line for good games going to be drawn?

Well, when I think of what makes a crappy game, I think of some questions....

1. Do I only care about this game because my favorite characters are in it?(That's what I was thinking about while playing Sonic Riders)

2. What does the game do well? Does it keep my interest and make me want to play it again? (That's what I was thinking about while playing Shadow the Hedgehog)

3. Does it seem like the developers tried with things like a good level design or tried to make a good story or have fun gameplay or did they put garbage out and just hope the "fans" would just buy it? (I was thinking this while playing Shadow and Riders)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Sin Ansem

I think they put more effort into Shadow than they did with Riders.

But ten bucks says they ignore their beta testers.

They're also succumbing to marketing AND making the games much harder (just look at Riders, Advance 3 and Rush's bosses, for example) which is why the Sonic franchise seems to be pandering out and not as keen to our tastes. Why exactly the fanbase is praising Sonic as the pros hate him more and more is still confusing to me. I saw the opposite happen with Heroes... but from Shadow onward I'm seeing "ZOMG BEST SONIC EVAR" from fanboys and "ZOMG TEH N00 SAW-NIK SUX" from pro reviewers.

Sonic Team actually hasn't put effort in a lot of their titles. I remember way back on Sonic R, a mediocre game with horrible character balancing and a total of 5 tracks. To me, it seemed like they were relying more on the music in the game to get the game some points.

Shadow the Hedgehog didn't seemed like much effort was put in it either. The level designs and horible non-CGI cutscenes. I just didn't think they thought the game out.

I thought they actually did put more effort into Riders though because of all of the unlockables. Of course, I was comparing it to the depth of Sonic R so that's not really saying much.

But I do see what you mean about the reviews. Fans of a game are to easily influenced. People go around telling them to not listen to reveiws because "everyone else are haters" so they try to seperate their opinions from reviewers. It happens to a lot of people. That's how I was when I saw the reviews for Sonic Hereos, I thought people didn't know just exactly how good the game was so they graded it low....A few weeks later I was like this is boring.

People aren't going to say the game they have sucks when they paid 40 bucks for it. They can get blinded by a lot of things, like being fond of the characters.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.