Sonic Generations Thread

[DJ espeed]

Don't forget all the glitch paths. For example, it was possible to finish Sonic's Flame Core with Knuckles.

Aside from the glitches, if they fixed other aspects in the game, it'd have been good in my eyes.

[TailsSena]

I feel like I'd still love the game the way it is. Being one of the minority who loved playing as a Warehog, didn't mind Tails/Cream in Rush, enjoys Navi saying "Hey, Listen!" and finds Daxter's constant chatter amusing.

[DimensionWarped]

Sonic's more recent issues haven't been physics. A better physics engine wouldn't magically make sonic games better. Sonic Generations (as well as colors) uses almost a direct port of the physics engine used in Sonic Unleashed. The only thing they've been changing is their level design and content.

I personally don't have much interest in the so-called "physics engine" (what, are we talking about Havok now?)... I just want to be able to control my character in a way that actually feels like I'm in control and can have reasonable interactions with my environment.

It has a lot to do with physics though, and it's an issue... regardless of whether it's an issue for you personally or not. Sonic Unleashed and Generations are just awkward when it comes to control, there's no doubt about it in my mind. And if they could fix that, then that would make the games better. No, not magically since there is nothing magical about it... but it would make them better.

Sega's been trying to return to its roots for so long that I'm wondering if it's even the best option for them at this point.

I'm going to say pretty bluntly that any attempt to 'return to roots' announced by SEGA in a project Izuka was leading was probably dishonest and half-hearted at best. That man is clearly absolutely in love with every little act of butchery he has ever committed and that's painted all over this game. If he weren't, it would have been a Sonic and the Secret Rings level in there instead of Crisis City.

[luksamuk]

If he weren't, it would have been a Sonic and the Secret Rings level in there instead of Crisis City.

Not true IMO. Crisis City gives me more nostalgia than any Secret Rings levels. I barely remember any of Sonic's Wii games when it comes to the nostalgia thing.

[DimensionWarped]

The amount of nostalgia you as an individual have over a 5 year old level from a terrible, horrible, woefully shitty game doesn't really amount to much. Besides, not all nostalgia is good nostalgia. Anyway, Secret Rings outsold Sonic 2006 and also had a number of levels with more thematic appeal than "burnt post apocalyptic city surrounded by lava". It had dinos. In a jungle. (Actually, I'd have preferred to see either the last level from that game or the ship stage... as much as grinding on rope leaves me feeling mentally chafed.)

[Kessler12]

Lol I died while fighting silver and this happend

http://youtu.be/xS4Mpf2CDN8

[TailsSena]

Wow... That's gotta hurt! Loads of friction, it's a wonder he wasn't on fire!

[Strife]

I'm going to say pretty bluntly that any attempt to 'return to roots' announced by SEGA in a project Izuka was leading was probably dishonest and half-hearted at best. That man is clearly absolutely in love with every little act of butchery he has ever committed and that's painted all over this game. If he weren't, it would have been a Sonic and the Secret Rings level in there instead of Crisis City.

Hoo boy, yes. xD I still remember all of the promises that were made about '06 and the resulting outcry. And I was wondering why there weren't any stages from the Storybook games... Maybe they thought they were made too recently?

[luksamuk]

The amount of nostalgia you as an individual have over a 5 year old level from a terrible, horrible, woefully shitty game doesn't really amount to much. Besides, not all nostalgia is good nostalgia. Anyway, Secret Rings outsold Sonic 2006 and also had a number of levels with more thematic appeal than "burnt post apocalyptic city surrounded by lava". It had dinos. In a jungle. (Actually, I'd have preferred to see either the last level from that game or the ship stage... as much as grinding on rope leaves me feeling mentally chafed.)

Let's just say I was nostalgic about the graphics and concepts of a game, not about its horrible physics, story, whatever. Denying that would be a big mistake.

Crisis City and Kingdom Valley were the star levels of Sonic 06. And I know SEGA pissed on the mach-speed sections too, but the Mach-speed part of Kingdom Valley is one of the most beautiful visions I've ever seen on a game. I felt like Moses while playing this part.

I'm not obsessed with criticizing any Sonic game about whatever shit it has good or not. If it's fun, it's good. Sonic 06 wasn't fun. I never played Secret Rings. But I never really understood why people keep saying that Werehog sucked, for example. It was VERY, VERY good for me. If there was no Werehg in Unleashed, people would probably say "I passed the whole game without even breathing, all I did was run and nothing more. It sucks." And, to be more honest, I don't see a problem with giving Sonic a sword as well. I never played it, must admit, but the concept is OK for me. I can imagine Sonic as a fucking fast knight easily. I can imagine him doing his signature rolling jump while he uses his sword to cut things in half.

The thing is

The Genesis era was fun. Good games.

SADX was fun, besides Big. Average game.

SA2 was fun, besides Knuckles. Average game.

Sonic Heroes was very fun. Good game.

Sonic 06 was bad simply because the glitches didn't let me play the game, and that happened too many times. Bad game.

Sonic Unleashed was fun. Good game.

Sonic Colors was fun. Good game.

Sonic Generations: Didn't play yet, but from what I played on the Modern gameplay, I didn't like it 100% because of the limited Boost. I ran away of Ring Energy so easily, and it was bad. Doesn't mean that the game isn't bad. I have to play it. And it would probably be rated by me as good, bad or average as well.

The rest... is baloney.

[TailsSena]

The Genesis era was fun. Good games.

SADX was fun, besides Big. Average game.

SA2 was fun, besides Knuckles. Average game.

Sonic Heroes was very fun. Good game.

Sonic 06 was bad simply because the glitches didn't let me play the game, and that happened too many times. Bad game.

Sonic Unleashed was fun. Good game.

Sonic Colors was fun. Good game.

I agree with most of this, although I did enjoy Knuckles/Rouge's gameplay in SA/SA2. Never played any Sonic game on PS3/360, so I can't say I enjoyed '06.

(Hush, I have a Genesis, PS2, PSP, DSi, Wii, and PC)

[Candescence]

The amount of nostalgia you as an individual have over a 5 year old level from a terrible, horrible, woefully shitty game doesn't really amount to much. Besides, not all nostalgia is good nostalgia. Anyway, Secret Rings outsold Sonic 2006 and also had a number of levels with more thematic appeal than "burnt post apocalyptic city surrounded by lava". It had dinos. In a jungle. (Actually, I'd have preferred to see either the last level from that game or the ship stage... as much as grinding on rope leaves me feeling mentally chafed.)

Not to mention if the Storybook Games were included, we'd actually see more level content, which this game seriously lacked.

And they may have even included Erazor Djinn or Evil!Arthur as a boss. At least we would've gotten a boss fight that was actually challenging (or at least challenging without being a massive pain in the ass to actually figure out how to kill it).

Yeah, two of this game's biggest problems was that there were only less than a dozen levels for Classic and Modern Sonic each, and nearly all of the bosses were more or less massive pushovers. I think part of the problem is that the "GOTTA GO FAST" design philosophy results in having to make longer levels and, as a result, much less time to make more levels.

Though, they did kinda cheat with Rooftop Run (mostly Unleashed content with some extras) and Planet Wisp (basically re-used Colours stuff).

[luksamuk]

I am such a troll, am I not?

[DJ espeed]

I am such a troll, am I not?[/spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler]

Spoilerception.

I'd like to see this game get some PRS, preferably in the means of additional level DLC.

[Serephim]

Not to mention if the Storybook Games were included, we'd actually see more level content, which this game seriously lacked.

And they may have even included Erazor Djinn or Evil!Arthur as a boss. At least we would've gotten a boss fight that was actually challenging (or at least challenging without being a massive pain in the ass to actually figure out how to kill it).

Yeah, two of this game's biggest problems was that there were only less than a dozen levels for Classic and Modern Sonic each, and nearly all of the bosses were more or less massive pushovers. I think part of the problem is that the "GOTTA GO FAST" design philosophy results in having to make longer levels and, as a result, much less time to make more levels.

Though, they did kinda cheat with Rooftop Run (mostly Unleashed content with some extras) and Planet Wisp (basically re-used Colours stuff).

This game had plenty of level content....the challenges actually altered the stages alot, and sometimes created entire new sections for you. At least, much moreso than alot of the different acts in Unleashed, which were usually just loops of a specific section with stock platforms placed everywhere. And even without the challenges, the game had 18 levels to play through. Bosses were pretty easy, but were decently fun for the most part. Except for Egg Dragoon. He just pissed me off. I figured Rooftop Run was a pretty useless inclusion due to Unleashed being made in the same generations, but they might as well not even be the same stage because they felt completely different. Im a bit biased on Rooftop run though. The classic remix of rooftop run is probably my favorite theme in the entire game.

I didn't play any of the storybook stages, but it's pretty funny how they specifically allude to the games at the start and then have nothing from them. It doesn't bother me though, because i didn't really care much for SatSR and ive never even seen SatBK.

[toaster1]

Just offering my two cents - I don't have nearly a lick of nostalgia for SatSR. That had a horrible control scheme and I didn't really enjoy playing past the first level.

On the other hand, the original 06, even though it was filled with glitches and the story was shit, had an ok control scheme, and when I got to it I honestly fell in love with Crisis City as a locale, and was way past happy to see it in Generations.

Just because you don't get nostalgia from it doesn't mean somebody else doesn't.

[Serephim]

Thats what this whole game was about

[DimensionWarped]

Just offering my two cents - I don't have nearly a lick of nostalgia for SatSR. That had a horrible control scheme and I didn't really enjoy playing past the first level.

On the other hand, the original 06, even though it was filled with glitches and the story was shit, had an ok control scheme, and when I got to it I honestly fell in love with Crisis City as a locale, and was way past happy to see it in Generations.

Just because you don't get nostalgia from it doesn't mean somebody else doesn't.

Fair enough. Clearly though, if they were going to go with the game that more people enjoyed and pissed less people off, they would have gone with Sonic and the Secret Rings. Personally, Crisis City does absolutely nothing for me and I'm amazed that anyone can derive any kind of enjoyment from it just considering that it's basically what you'd expect out of one of the less interesting levels from Shadow the Hedgehog.

Also, don't kid yourself, the controls were probably the worst part of 06.

[DJ espeed]

Sonic 06's controls were "OK", but I see it's glitches as being synonymous with the controls in the regards of issues. The scheme (at least for Sonic and Shadow), if nothing else, should be reminiscent of the Sonic Adventure titles. But of course, it was very, very poorly implemented. I'm not saying that the buttons were poorly mapped. The controls themselves were implemented so poorly. Why, if I had a nickel for every time that I, or maybe anyone else has had a problem trying to keep on the beginning path in the first part of Flame Core (aka, trying not to fall into the lava), I'd be pretty fucking rich. And it wasn't just in Flame Core, either. I believe Dusty Desert had some of those problems, too, provided you played with Shadow. Mach Speed then had even shittier controls than the main gameplay itself. If you thought running to the edge or running OFF the edge in the levels was bad, try keeping Sonic on the path in Kingdom Valley's mach speed segment without falling off once. It takes quite a bit to master, unless you somehow have the miraculous ability to overcome shitty controls and actually see where you're supposed to go the FIRST time without referencing a Youtube video on the level. Sonic 06 sucked for a lot of reasons, but for reasons none more so egregious than the controls.

[toaster1]

Okay, the controls were mapped to okay buttons. It wasn't a hellhole to play like SatSR was for me, ok? That was what I was trying to say. Again, 2 cents.

[Serephim]

Look.

The word "fun" is subjective for videogames. The moment people realize that, and stop listening to everything these critic websites put up (who are absolutely no different of a critic than most of us here, mind you), then we'll probably get along alot better. Watching IGN give a game like Skyward Sword a 10 while waving off various flaws they dock points for in other games, even in the same franchise (camera, framerate, FAN EXPECTATIONS, voice acting) is just amazing to me. Although i'll probably agree with them in the end on THAT particular game, Game Critics are just as wonky with their criticisms as the different members of this website are on iterations of their same beloved franchise.

Undeniable proof of this is the fact that some of you were actually able to complete Sonic 06 without sticking it in your toaster after the first hour of playing. Or how i was able to complete Sonic Unleashed with barely any serious problems with the Werehog's gameplay. Or how Shadow the Hedgehog was...well, a completely ridiculous game, but despite its uglyness, obvious rushed nature, and general hate from the fanbase, i actually enjoyed probably most of the game's stages. Some sonic fans will bitch about Sonic 4's physics glitches, tasteless fanservice and shortcomings (lolme), while some other sonic fans exclaimed that it was the "return to classic roots" that we've all been waiting for.

I personally thought Generations was the best sonic experience i can remember since completing Sonic Adventure 2. I had no issues with its gameplay or its content, or its storyline, or the classic/modern stage gameplay. It was just very fun for me to play, and i actually anticipated seeing each of the stages remade in beautiful 3D. The game ran from stage to stage to stage, forced you once to choose a challenge to play, gave you a boss, and then repeated the process until the final boss. Then gave you Supersonic and left you with plenty of challenge stages, which, surprisingly to me, feel like ACTUAL content instead of lazily tacked on challenge "templates" that most games will do to you....well, each stage does have the ol' "COLLECT [x] RINGS" or "BEAT STAGE REALLY FAST", but then again each stage has more than one that will actually change enough to make me want to play another.

And honestly, it's all i really care for. It's all anyone should really care for. If this game didn't impress you, then you'll probably be disappointed in this franchise many more times in the future. I honestly felt like they studied the original games very well when creating this one though. But more than anything, it's obvious they've been listening.

[Rawr]

I beat Sonic 06 twice. Once on my old Xbox profile when it first came out and even S-ranked all the town missions for everyone etc etc, and then I repeated that shit again on my current xbox account.

However I look back and wonder how the fuck I was able to actually tolerate playing it for that long. I mean granted this was all when I was 16-17 and since then I've stopped being so blind to just how bad of a game it is - BUT EVEN THEN ITS LIKE WHAT THE HELL.

I still prefer it to SATSR, which to this day I can't even tolerate it. The motion controls are garbage (as are pretty much all motion controls to me) so that really doesn't help the game sit well with me.

[Serephim]

I played the first stage of SatSR, and felt like the game was trying to trick me into playing by making sonic run STUPID slow and whatnot. Not to mention, i remembered seeing older footage of the game before they stuck rails and springs everywhere.

I remember Videogames were alot more fun to me before i started realizing what a "bad game" was. Even in the most disappointing games ive played recently, ive still be able to find a few qualities in the game that were well done enough for me to enjoy playing them.

I think ive started to realize that....well, i really just rarely care for videogames anymore. The best games ive played in the last 15 years, for the first time in my life, have actually been from the 90s. Im currently 19 hours into Final Fantasy 6 (snes version, as people fell in love with it even off that translation), and i HONESTLY can't remember the last time i played such an amazing fucking videogame....oh wait, yeah i can; from when i replayed Final Fantasy 7 last year.

I also got The 3rd Birthday earlier this summer, and it also nonstop hooked the fuck out of me like i never expected it would. It just was a very fun game to me, i beat it and immediately started over on hard mode and beat it again -- and i can't even remember the last time i did that to a game that revolved around Gunplay. However, every review i read about the game has something to do with it having flawed controls and mechanics and shit, something i definitely didn't notice because it's the most fun ive had just shooting at shit since i first bought Halo 3.

Not even a month ago, i ignored everything people kept saying about Sonic Unleashed and decided to just flat-out buy the game. Mostly because i had the demo on PS3 for the longest and played it whenever i got bored just to speedrun. I got it exclusively for the DAY stages, but in the end i throughly enjoyed....well, pretty much the entire game. It took a minute to adjust to Werehog's shitty framerate drops, but after i got the air combo mechanics down and stuff, i realized that damn, this battle engine is actually pretty damn solid. I compared it to God of War due to videos, but it felt much different during actual gameplay; hell, the battle mechanics felt FAR more solid than the ones in God of War III ever did. I never particularly anticipated werehog stages, but I never dreaded them either, because by the end of the second Werehog stage, I noticed that i hadn't played one that wasn't fun yet.

[Rawr]

A lot of my favourite games come from the 90s I think too. I think for me personally I enjoyed it when games weren't actively trying to be like movies. They are completely different mediums and while there is no problem in taking inspiration with them, when you get games that wish they were movies instead I have to wonder why they just didn't make a movie instead. However to say I haven't enjoyed some of these more cinematic games would be a lie, as I still need to catch up and play Mass Effect 2 and then get into number 3.

There is a certain aura in terms of those old-school games that I simply love. However that is not to say that those type of games do not exist even to this day because there is still plenty of amazing video games out there to play. I enjoy a wide variety, and I still get really giddy over certain titles (PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2 I AM LOOKING AT YOU LETS GO HAVE BABIES TOGETHER HAHGUGHO...for example) and there are still some smaller more independent games that I find cater more towards what I am looking for.

Cave Story has become one of my favourite games in recent years, after not trying it for so long I finally gave it a whirl a year ago and was gripped. It's not a perfect game but its damn well close in terms of my personal tastes. I'm also eagerly awaiting Konjak's Iconoclasts because DAMN that game is great so far.

So I mean, I got lots to look forward to.

[Serephim]

Cave Story took me by complete surprise. I mainly stayed away from it because of how much everyone kept blabbing on about it. Played it at home one day, best game i'd played that year hands down.

Im looking forward to Konjak's Iconoclasts, but I honestly liked the original version of the game better (I think on his website, it's called Ivory Springs) before he upped the resolution of the sprites.

[Rawr]

Yeah it was Ivory Springs I'm sure. I like the upped resolution with the sprites, they're very beautifully done. Cave Story took me by surprise too hah. I mean I always thought it looked like fun but I never truly knew until I played it. Then it cemented itself as one of my favourite games.

Edit: also we're going wayyyy off topic haha. Maybe I should make a topic for COOL VIDYA GAEMS later if I am bored or something.