The Deleter

I hope the kids enjoy it!

That makes me really happy. It may not exactly be the Sonic movie most people dreamed of, but it's certainly exposing more people to the franchise. That's always a win.

they were thrown in the trash where they belong

Too bad Lost World dug Sonic's out of the trash. And hey, giving characters PHYSICAL projectiles could make up for it.

sonic stopped being fun

And the one time it tried to be fun, it became a paraplegic. Except for the comics, but even then...

The duality of man is at work here.

What do you mean by energy-based attacks?

While not the best model to represent the mainline Sonic design, it can be used as a springboard for ideas. Instead of keeping the noodle arms and legs from Classic and Modern, a mix of his SA1 and Movie design could help to create a Sonic that is:

- Reminiscent of the best parts of Classic and Modern Sonic

- Well proportioned

- Still cartoony

Gotta love how they are fucking with the one thing left that was actually fine, which was his model. His universe is in shambles, every characters is a joke, the writing is beyond shit, personalities are more one dimensional than ever, voice actors suck...but lets fuck around with the model instead of fixing any of the the real issues.

Chill out, everyone works on different things in a dev team. The designers and 3D modellers don’t have the same role that writers do.

I mean the slogan is "Gotta go fast!" after all

I am 100% ok with short games. If there's still a decent amount of levels with great replayability, I couldn't care less if it's only a 2 hour endeavor as far as gameplay is concerned.

Though with that being said, I still want a decent story. The standard "1 short cutscene per level" probably isn't going to cut it here so, real talk, I say just go full fucking Kojima with that shit. Give me some 5, 7, hell, 10+ min cutscenes in between levels. Just throw a skip button in there for the people who don't care.

The longest Sonic games are already short by modern standards.

@Strickerx5 I always thought Colors' "Egg shuttle" mode was a good idea on how to deal with it, if they just made it an arcade mode flat out. Leave the full campaign as connected to cutscenes and dialog as possible, ala Forces' in-game dialog and cutscenes, and then a separate mode for people wanting to run through the entire game without any interruptions.

Skip button is a must if that doesn't exist though. Even Sonic Mania's opening cutscene bored me so much in vanilla Mania, I would have rather played through a save with all emeralds than start another no-save run because of the whole cutscene playing out

I've tried explaining to others in the past the benefits of a dedicated arcade mode alongside the main story mode that drops all the story, hub, and menu grinding but have never been taken seriously before. It makes me glad to see it being suggested again and I am all for it. For example, I love Unleashed but hate having to shuffle through menu after menu to just go through the main stages. If I had a dedicated arcade mode I could just boot up and go which would be far more enjoyable when I want to run through all of the stages in order and quickly.

@Wraith Can't tell if you're agreeing or not but that's my point exactly

Sonic games already entice players to finish their games in one sitting by nature of their just-short-enough length that it fits within a full day of free time, but despite that they've never been just short enough that you could wrap one up in a timely manner, either. It's a wierd middle ground where someone can sink their teeth into the game for one entire day at best, but can't finish a playthrough with the ideal pacing (in one sitting) at worst.

Why not give the people who have that time at their disposal the option to do so with all the challenges they lock progression behind/more side stages, and leaving the choice to the player? Or in the case of classic Sonic, make zones themselves alternate routes ala afterburner, outrun, starfox, etc for the same amount of content

Egg Shuttle was so good and I'm so annoyed it didn't become a mainstay for the series.  Having it be an option from the start would be kind of bold but not unreasonable. It's a shame that the REAL solution would be "make a story people care about this time", but unfortunately the franchise's past has built up too much bad will that a lot of adult players are predisposed to not care about the story.

I'm very against them getting any shorter but a playlist mode where you can play all the levels in a row or even make your own set to run through is something I've wanted for a while.

Multiple paths through the games is yet another thing I would love to see done just for varieties sake. And it's not like there is no precedent for it. The Taxman remake for Sonic 2 includes Hidden Palace as an alternate level, in Spring Yard Zone in the original one of the acts has two different finish points, and Sonic CD with it's alternate time zones all show that it can be done. It's honestly the kind of thing that would make a Mania 2 pop for me while showing new ways to explore the classic the pre-Adventure main game approach.

The only thing I'm not keen on with alternative routes is that you end up with a Shadow situation where you play the first level(s) 3-5 times more often than any others when you do a playthrough. In a game with alternative routes, once I had all those levels unlocked I'd play a "marathon mode" every time if it was available to me.

Granted, if alternative routes was the game's entire shtick, I'd prolly be more welcoming to it - as is in Sonic 2 Mobile I'm always kind of annoyed that I have to choose one or the other each playthrough.  Usually I end up just playing Mystic Cave normally and then doing a runthrough on Hidden Palace on Time Attack after the credits.

Considering the fact that most of the longer Sonic games are only that length because of excessive padding (looking at you, Heroes), then yeah, it is preferable that they’d be shorter.

That being said, if you’re gonna have a shorter game, you damn well better have some extra content attached to increase the longevity of it. I know for a fact I certainly wouldn’t be happy that spent 60$ on a game I had beaten in less than 2 hours.

As stated by others here, an arcade mode and alternate routes  are good starting points, though I can’t say if that would be good enough, really.

Playlist mode was my top billing for a while as well, but that was for moreso whenever I got bored by the stage repetitions themselves after playing the game 10 times in a row and wanted to mix it up for variety's sake, or ignore the stages that were shallower than others. Now that I play them less often, I'm more focused on the structure of the game as a single experience as a pick-up-and-play campaign, and it's just bothering me that this is the way it is when it already leans so close towards this direction in the first place.

I do get it though, especially with the alternate route dellimas, since I oftentimes found myself wanting to experience all of Star Fox SNES or Star Fox Zero whenever I had the time, rather than their brief playthroughs. I do think that 64 avoids this by enabling so many different routes from the start that every playthrough feels worthwhile, however.

Idk I'm just mad I keep ending at Hydrocity/Mirage Saloon/Oil Ocean in Mania tbh; legit wish Discovery existed every time I end up turning it off at those points specifically, and it gets my goat that the entire series is like this whenever I end up playing through them for a quick replay, as well. They're all short. Just not short enough.

@Menace2Society: Yeah but Sonic games are $50/$30 games nowadays anyways tho

Deliberate pacing is a powerful tool in games when wielded skillfully and I prefer it over the star fox approach but if people want to fuck around with it post credits I dont care.

I'm just against the games getting shorter because they already offer an embarrassing amount of content for their price point. 

I don't mind short and sweet, so long as it doesn't cost full price like other games. 

Okay so I've always thought it fit because the "alternate" pacing is so ingrained into the series' DNA it's not exactly asking for much to travel to a different zone rather than traversing a different pathway, or a player going out of their way to defeat every boss for every zone rather than screwing about for every power up and secret in a single playthrough, so I never really questioned it much

I'm starting to realize this all kinda falls apart for me when I consider acts like Flying Battery 2 in Mania, though, because no matter what I do I can't help but feel I'm missing out on a part of the act because I'm choosing one over the other, and the two are so radically different experiences it causes a bit of fomo compared to the rest of the game, honestly. Which outside of throwing a wrench in the alternate route theory... it kinda sucks because it implies that there might be something fundamentally flawed with making a single zone visually and mechanically distinct in different areas rather than one consistent aesthetic and gimmick throughout. FB2 is great imo because it felt like an evolution of what a single Sonic zone can be, but if it clashes with the player's best interests that badly in terms of self-pacing and choice, maybe it's not worth it?

I've always thought Sonic zones could do better in terms of environmental distinction like this, ultimately diverging into different zones but also stacking diverse areas of the theme itself into one zone and different routes instead of splitting them up into "acts", so this is kinda taking the wind outta my sails, not gonna lie

It depends how they do it. Generations is also short, but Gens also has some of the most replayable levels in the series that will take you a long while if you go for 100%.

Unleashed’s problem in terms of length for me isn’t Werehog stages, I can deal with them even if they have difficulty spikes later, but needless and frustrating filler like the sun/moon medal requirements drive me up a wall, and is what stops me from wanting to do a full replay.

It almost makes me wish we could have Unleashed’s levels slightly redone and ported to Gens, or previous games’ levels ported to future boost titles, maybe similar to how Rayman Legends ported over a lot of Origins’ levels as the Back to Origins mode. I know the Unleashed project did just that, but it’d be nice to see it in an official capacity.

As much as I enjoy hub worlds (with quick options for those who don't want to walk around them, like Splatoon for example), I always felt like SA2's stage select was the best for replaying levels quickly. Just a simple map with some info on your progress in each level and where they were roughly located during the story. SA2 already had a boss rush so a playlist wouldn't be too bad either.

As for an arcade mode I think it could be interesting. Back when I played Overwatch I found myself playing the arcade modes more than quick play. Some variations on the main levels or mini games in those settings maybe?

For game length I don't mind the gameplay being short as long as the story is interesting. Missions can be fun when it's something like hard mode or challenging you to explore the level more. If the stage itself is fun, then just replaying it can be fun, but missions can extend play in a fun way when done right. (Shadow being a case of it being done wrong)

I think a good compromise is split paths with different things to do. I also miss the semi open areas where you can still blaze through them, but if you slow down there's room to find items or power ups.

We'll still never get Gamecube VC.

I think it’s supposed to be his tied up moustache.

Seems shots from CCXP which is running on my city. The line up is not half bad with Sonic movie stuff and Star Wars (Including the main movie actors and producers).

In case you want some translation:

February 13th in Theaters
Sonic
The Movie

Made to
Run

There you can also play some Sonic games related (In the likes of the SEGA Joy, I think) as well make your hair like Sonic, 'cause why not?

Also found this:

Though the art has nearly nothing to do with Sonic style, seems pretty cool. Guess the 2nd and 7th were my favorites (Left to Right, Up to Down).