Posted April 26, 2017
Talk about a franchise that's made mistakes at every opportunity! From having the player go though 8 special stages of hell to reveal that your prize was a crappy invincibility powerup and a knockoff of Super Saiyan with none of the fun, introducing a new character that completely trivializes the game (two for the price of one), introducing the series to time travel, smashing a game in half and selling the other half at a later date, attempting to sell a game on the idea of being permanently tethered to another (and not starring the main), the entire entrance into 3D is a massive mistake for the franchise, and the sequel doubles down on all the wrong things, which is then followed by the start of Sega misinterpreting fan feedback giving you a crappy saccharine game, which is then followed by the edgiest game.
06 happens, and any logical person would have retired the franchise after that, but keen to not learn from their mistakes, they give the blue guy a gauntlet before deciding to make him transform by night which was awful because the day stages were actually good Sonic stages once more, followed by giving him a sword for no reason, which then is forgotten about to give him a bunch of gimmicky abilities before Sega finally has a moment of sanity and gives us Generations.
They promptly forget that, and try to rip off Super Mario Galaxy (and fail), and now we're staring at the lazy Susan of awfulness that is Sonic Forces: Featuring Bubsy.
Oh, and at some point, they handed the rights off to some unknown shovelware developer and we got Sonic Boom. Blames on them, they greenlit the final product.
WHEW. With that all out of the way, having recounted the major sins of the franchise, I was wondering if we could have a yin-yang sort of discussion.
On one hand, we have what is clearly a loveletter to the roots and best parts of the franchise, presented in glitz in glory, made by a team of fans.
On the other hand, we have classic Sonic getting dragged though the mud in a sterile environment full of speed traps.
How does Sega NOT GET IT? It's as if they understood that Sonic Generations was well liked, but then they got a sake stained demand from the CEO, requiring that they pay Homage to Shadow the Hedgehog. Like, I get that most of the original Sonic Team staff left yonks ago, but even the new staff they hired, must have some idea of what to do right, so where does it keep going wrong? Why do they keep having Sonic spin the wheel instead of just sticking to a plan?
06 happens, and any logical person would have retired the franchise after that, but keen to not learn from their mistakes, they give the blue guy a gauntlet before deciding to make him transform by night which was awful because the day stages were actually good Sonic stages once more, followed by giving him a sword for no reason, which then is forgotten about to give him a bunch of gimmicky abilities before Sega finally has a moment of sanity and gives us Generations.
They promptly forget that, and try to rip off Super Mario Galaxy (and fail), and now we're staring at the lazy Susan of awfulness that is Sonic Forces: Featuring Bubsy.
Oh, and at some point, they handed the rights off to some unknown shovelware developer and we got Sonic Boom. Blames on them, they greenlit the final product.
WHEW. With that all out of the way, having recounted the major sins of the franchise, I was wondering if we could have a yin-yang sort of discussion.
On one hand, we have what is clearly a loveletter to the roots and best parts of the franchise, presented in glitz in glory, made by a team of fans.
On the other hand, we have classic Sonic getting dragged though the mud in a sterile environment full of speed traps.
How does Sega NOT GET IT? It's as if they understood that Sonic Generations was well liked, but then they got a sake stained demand from the CEO, requiring that they pay Homage to Shadow the Hedgehog. Like, I get that most of the original Sonic Team staff left yonks ago, but even the new staff they hired, must have some idea of what to do right, so where does it keep going wrong? Why do they keep having Sonic spin the wheel instead of just sticking to a plan?