Yeow

Decided to put this here, since this concerns the staff about Sonic Forces. Took a glance at the slate of directors and designers for the past Sonic Team games over the decade, going back as far as Sonic 2006; over at Retro. What I found: Sonic 2006: Director/Game Story/Game Title: Shun Nakamura Chief Game Designers: Shun Nakamura, Atsushi Kanno Game Designers: Hiroshi Miyamoto, Takao Hirabayashi, Masayuki Inoue, Takako Nagase, Makoto Hirata, Daisuke Shimizu Secret Rings: Producer/Director: Yojiro Ogawa Lead Game Designer: Morio Kishimoto Game Designers: Yojiro Ogawa, Shiro Maekawa, Emiko Sunaga, Harumasa Nakajima, Jyunpei Ootsu, Takayuki Okada, Eitaro Toyoda Unleashed: Director/Lead Game Designer: Yoshihisa Hashimoto Day Time Level Designers: Masayuki Inoue, Yoshinobu Uba, Takayuki Ohada Night Time Level Designers: Takao Hirabayashi, Natsuha Matsubara, Hideo Ohtsika Lead Planner: Takao Hirabayashi Boss Game Designer: Eitaro Toyoda Combat System Designer: Takao Hirabayashi Black Knight: Producer/Director - Tetsu Katano Lead Game Designer - Morio Kishimoto Game Designers - Harumasa Nakajima, Shintaro Kai, Takahiro Ono, Midori Iwabuchi, Kanano Yamaguchi Colors: Director and Lead Game Designer - Morio Kishimoto Lead Planner - Harumasa Nakajima Planners - Shintaro Kai, Takeshi Yamazaki, Jyunpei Ootsu, Mitsuru Osakada, Kiyoteru Mizuhara Lead Level Designer - Takayuki Okada Level Designers - Natsuha Matsubara, Takahiro Ono, Katsuyuki Shigihara, Kanano Yamaguchi, Midori Iwabachi Generations: Director - Hiroshi Miyamoto Lead Game Designer - Yoshinobu Uba Game Designers - Daisuke Shimizu, Katsuyuki Shigihara, Utako Yoshino, Takamasa Usui, Takayuki Okada, Kanano Yamaguchi, Haruhiko Kashiwazaki Lost World: Director - Morio Kishimoto Level Designers - Natsuha Matsubara, Takayuki Okada, Kanano Yamaguchi, Rei Hata, Yuma Matsunaga, Jyunpei Ootsu, Takahiro Ono Forces (what we know so far): Director - Morio Kishimoto (Sonic Team directors/designers who have worked on three or more games are italicized.) Personal observations. The narrative about Sonic Team being comprised of two different teams is technically true. All of the Nintendo console-exclusive Sonic games (Secret Rings, Black Knight, Colors, and Lost World) have had the same headlining figure (Morio Kishimoto) as a director or lead game designer, and there has been a consistent group of staff responsible for designing behind each game following Secret Rings. However, the multiplatform / HD console Sonic games (2006, Unleashed, and Generations) only share a few recurring designers, and they all have different directors; in contrast to the Nintendo-exclusive Sonic titles, the designer staff for each of the three games aren't consistent. Generations is an interesting case, as most of the designers were done by Sonic Team staff who weren't involved with any of the previous Sonic games, or returned for the subsequent Lost World. An argument could be made that they were a "B-team" staff assembled solely for the purpose of starting work on Generations, while Colors was still undergoing development. (Makes me wonder a bit how Lost World would had turned out, had it been made by these guys instead.) Given how Kishimoto has been named the director of Forces and what we've seen from the game's design so far, I expect Forces' staff of designers to also be populated by his crew who have worked on his past titles. I also consequently wouldn't expect any of the design choices from Generations to be incorporated from it either (we've already heard reports from some about the game's controls feeling different from Generations).

Really not happy with this news, especially with this bombshell being reported just a few days before the game's release. The only reason I got the PC version is because it's literally the only version of the game I could/can actually support and had access to. Most of the time, I play games on consoles, I didn't even have a Steam account prior to June; but because I don't have a PS4, Xbox One, or Switch, getting the game on Steam was and still is my only option. And now the only version of the game I can play is the only one that gets pushed back. I also share bewilderment with others about the reason for the PC versions' delay being "optimization issues". This is a 2D pixel-sprite game emulating Saturn-level graphics, running on Taxman's Retro Engine. Mania could literally run on a toaster. For there to be optimization issues with a title like this, indicates to me that someone somewhere along the line made a colossal mistake was made during the process of getting the game to Steam.

Super happy to see Competition Mode is back. One of the best things about Sonic 2 that wasn't replicated as good in later Sonic games w/ multiplayer. (SA2:B came the closest.) Hopefully we have online races in addition to local, even Sonic 2 Remastered on mobile devices had that. Not a fan of the game replicating Sonic 2's flattened aspect ratio, though. skullomania on NeoGAF posted an image edit that shrunk the screens to a more natural aspect ration, like in Sonic 3's Competition Mode (or if you're going for a more obscure example, the multiplayer display option in the emulated Sonic 2 release in the Sega Smash Pack 2 compilation). Hopefully this or something similar is in the game as an alternate display method option. At least the multiplayer won't chug in framerate like Sonic 2 did, at least. Only one week away...!