Roger_van_der_weide

We' ve already seen 3 of the 7 race locations. They'll probably only reveal one more before launch. How many of it's 7 zones did Sonic Forces reveal before launch? And they deliberatly revealed 12 of the 15 racers (And 2 more by accident) So what do you even expect them to reveal anymore? I think we've seen the majority of the concent. I expect little other then the shocking relevation if we get Seaside hill for the 100th time, or Green Hill Zone for the 5028th time. I hope it's Green Hill, if only for the potential of a mecha/ Neo/ sand version of the track. Not to mention it'd be a shame to break the current streak of unbroken appearences. And I don't think they care enough about the included story to make a big deal out of it. Much as I'd like full rendered cutscenes with a zany adventurous plot like Sonic Riders had, it's more likely we get a repeat of Free Riders cheap presentation and bad jokes marathon. Hard to make a trailer about that.

Depends on what you mean with " genuinely like it" I do genuinely like playing it in terms of simple adreline arcade action thingy. If I turn by brain off, or just play it as a "collect all items to unlock all customes" kinda thing, it can be fun. But yeah, soon as I turn by brain on, it's just overwhelming in how many oppurtunities it wastes and confused in what Sonic Team was even trying to do with this game. I genuinely enjoy it for what it Doesn't do (Stupid puzzles and pace destroying gimmicks like Lost world and Colors did) but I'm dissapointed in so far what the game DOES do, as in, mostly flaunting around excelent ideas but not really executing any of them. Dunno if that counts as "Okay" or" genuinely liking it" I can recommend the game to those who enjoy walking simulators, at least.

The Sonic R tracks would need to be edited down then, don't think the openness and all the optional side paths of Sonic R's tracks will translate well. Not to mention the minor platforming sections. But I agree it would be neat to see them pull it off, not to mention would justify the random R in the logo. Heck, include an entire series of Retro style tournaments, Mario Kart style. Sonic and Sega all star tracks should be easy to translate to the new game. Sonic R and Riders would be more tricky because of game specific gimmicks, but it would be neat to race trough Sonic Free Riders tracks in a game that isn't a nightmare to control. Heck, even Sonic Drift racing could be re-used like what Mario kart does with the Snes/ GBA tracks. I really doubt it would happen, but it'd be awesome if it would.

I was more parroting the general consensus rather the my own opinion there, so can't make hard statements about this. I think the biggest issue with the early Adventure era dialogue is either from a technical perspective rather then a writing perspective (Sa1's clunky pauses and tonal changes between lines like the actors said each line in a vacuum, SA2's sound mixing problems) That and some people hate the weird translation quirks like some Japanese phrases being left in SA2's dialogue, altough personally I think they kinda work. As if it matters whether screaming during a karate kick or random sounds you make when petting a Chao is English. And with the later Adventure era is more the focus on exposition and plot technical details rather then the cast's own quirky personalities. (Sonic 06 in particular is very dry. Other then Silver enjoying the past world and Sonic and Elise's occasonal romantic banter, it's mostly the cast explaning stuff. Especially Eggman.) To Sonic Colors's defense for that specific scene, it was supposed to be a joke and Sonic is called out for his behavior. I didn't find it particularly funny, but it's intentional, so yeah. Can't fault the scene on being unnatural if that's the point. Other then that, the technical aspect of the dialogue is well done, and there's a larger focus on the characters personality (I could argue that their personalities are slightly off, but I have to admit at least there's a focus on character driven dialogue at all.) So that's Color's strenght. But also weakness, as the game get's so wrapped up in making their characters look clever and witty that it's at the expense of the adventure itself. Hence why my personal pick of "bad scene" for Sonic Colors is when Tails and Sonic start a comedy routine right as the themepark is starting to shake and collapse. Way to ruin the momentum and tension of the finale. A single quick joke would have sufficed. And to Forces defense, that game was light on jokes and goofyness. And most of the jokes feel justified and to the point. So I disagree that comedy and goofyness ruined the friendship speech. I'd say the friendship angle is more ruined by the fact Modern Sonic makes no sense as friendship advocate. He's so perfect and indestructable that any help his friends can provide feels meanignless. Amplified by the fact that Sonic resolves the entire situation without a sweat as soon as he sleepwalks out of his prison cell, rendering everything the main cast did for 6 months meaningless. And his typical "Lone rider leaving toward the sunset" ending is hilariously out of place after he gave a giant speech about how they'll all work together and re-build the world together. I suppose that just leaves Unleashed as the one with the better dialogue, being right in the middle between the Adventure and Colors era. Altough with that game I have an issue that the plot momentum is completely dormant for most of the running time. There's always something wrong, so pick your poison what's the most tolerable for you.

I agree blindly chasing after the Adventure games again isn't a good idea, they got some serious issues. Thing is, they're more liked for their general energy and concepts more then their specific tehnical execution. But man, I'd be lying if there Sonic team's pursuit to their new directions haven't cost many good elements that get lost in the scuffle either. So looking back at the old games to see what's been missing wouldn't be bad either. If there's one thing I think the Adventure era(And Classic era for that matter) did better then modern Sonic is having convictions in it's themes. Sonic adventure is about ancient civilization Aztec stuff. And aside from some general Dr. Eggman havoc and some city levels, the game is entirely devoted to it, temples, jungles, a story about the ancient tribe, a villain from the ancient legends, the whole package. Or even a game like Shadow, call it misguided and an ill fit for the Sonic series what you want, but IF you are interested in the whole "Dark Edgey hedgehog battling aliens" theme it presents, you'll get what you want with the game entirely devoted to it. Sonic Rush Adventure has a pirate theme, so it has pirate levels, pirate villains, a story about a hunting treasure, gameplay revolving around sailing the seas. Sonic CD embraces it's time travel, Sonic Unleashed is all about world traveling (altough wasting it's werehog theme) Sonic and the black knight it's King Arthur stuff, SA2 it's goverment consipiracy militairy themes. Etc. Etc. Etc. All with the music, the villains, the level themes and gameplay elements devoted to the central theme. If you like the theme they're going for, they got you covered. But modern Sonic just can't stick to it's guns for some reason. How come Sonic adventure managed to pack more Themepark gameplay gimicks in one fricking level then Sonic Colors did across it's entire game? Lost world gives us a fantastic parkours style gameplay, yet I hardly remember more then 5% of the game having levels designed around it and is either about completely unrelated gimicks or have a level design fighting AGAINST the parkours style, with flat and cramped stages. Never mind it's story themes, you got Japanese demons, Eggman having juice giving his robots super power, The lost hidden continent of the future/ illusions and none of those are explored and utilized beyond the bare minimum. And Sonic Forces is so desperatly bouncing between being Sonic Lost world 2 and Sonic World war 2 that it gives me a whiplash. And while I can credit Sonic Colors for at least having a decent flow and focused direction to its story, but Lost world and Forces seem to just blindly stumble from disconnected plotpoint to disconnected plotpoint. As much as I love mocking, say, Sonic Rush for it's hamfisted and awkward moral that Blaze needs to accept Sonic as her lord and saviour, at least the game does spend a lot of time and energy selling that plot. Beats me how Sonic Forces suddenly stumbles into a "And it's all because of friendship!"conclusions by the end. It's really fascinating how Modern Sonic's writing in terms of dialogue improved and made it more smooth and natural instead of the more jerky and awkward speech from the Adventure era, but as far as plot progression is written, it went in reverse. The only time modern Sonic seems to be able to stick to it's theme is whenever a game is based entirely around recycling the past, like Generations, Mania and so on. And surprise, they tend to be the most fun, cohesive and well executed. All other games seem to desperatly cram in as many ideas as possible. Really wish we could get a Sonic game that's really ABOUT something again, instead of piles of vaguely interesting ideas chocking each other to death. This is also why I don't see the point of any "I hope the next Sonic game will be Serious/ Funny/ About Blaze/ Sonic adveture 3/ Sonic Cd 2/ 3d platformer/ boost" arguments. Doesn't matter what theme they pick next time if the other 95% of the game will blindly stumble into 25 contradicting directions.

I don't think lack of seriousness is the problem. SA1 and SA2 sure had a lot more goofyness then Sonic Forces had. Seems to me it's more the lack of conviction and energy that's the problem. Modern games not having fun with their own premise. I'm tearing my hair out when I read about, say, Sonic Team's plans with the Lost Hex from Sonic Lost world and reading them describe it as a world of illusions and a continent of the future, and then looking at the game and scream "Where? WHERE? Where's all this cool stuff?" Or Sonic Forces dumbass war theme. YOU HAVE EGGMAN IN CONTROL OF THE ENTIRE PLANET!!! A VILLAIN THAT CAN SCREW WITH THE HEROES BRAINS WITH CREATING ILLUSIONS! Whether using it for comedy or drama, I don't care, DO SOMETHING WITH THAT PREMISE!

Kinda pointless to speculate with no data. Easy answer is "The Movie/ Team Sonic Racing." Hard answer is "I dunno." Speculative answer is "Showing off Hedgehog engine 2?" Cynical answer is "Not what you want/ Want you want but terribly done."

What does it matter? Modern Sonic is 70% Classic Sonic imagary anyway, so what's the diffrence? A pointless 10 seconds of 3d gameplay and Shadow making a meaningless cameo in a cutscene? Modern Sonic IS Classic Sonic, just with broken gameplay and a severe identity crisis.

There's probably several factors at work. After Rise of Lyric, Sega promised higher quality in future games. That might also reduced the amount of content and ambition of current games. Easier to keep the game tight and clean when the amount of content is more manageble. That said, gotta say the smaller scaled games are getting to me. Don't mind the occasional breather episode like advance and colors, but I DID get into this series because I was into the grand spectacle heavy adventures from Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Adventure, Unleashed. Sonic Generations was cute and fun, but the endless nostalgia victory laps are really killing the momentum of the series. And Sonic Forces, despite technically being the grand spectacle adventure I am thirsty for, ironically only made it worse by merely emphesizing how far the series has drifted away from being a compelling adventure rather then a deteriorating nostalgia recycling plant. Now i'm looking toward the hollywood movie in hopes of revitilizing the series, and that's kinda sad.

I'm okay with the idea that Ice mountain zone is connected to Icecap zone, the level in Sonic advance IS immedialty followed up by the Angel island level, so it is established ice mountain should be closely connected to, if not litteraly on Floating island. I'm happy they put some actual thought into the geography of the levels again, that's great. And I'm personally fine with the game being more casual and easier, ESPECIALLY if there will be a higher focus on random items and AI teamwork. It seems this game will rely more on random chance again rather then pure driving skills. So I'd be concerned if this game is difficult, it would require you not to have great driving skills, but great "praying you won't randomly explode all the time" skills to win. So yeah, casual, that's good. .... Of course it would have been better if the random luck component was dropped entirely and it was a pure racing game, but that ain't happening if the philosophy of the game is that Iizuka can play it with his kids.

Speaking of which, I'm really surprised there's no Mania/ Forces tie- ins yet, I really expected Sega to throw those in. Man, I was looking forward to a Studiopolis/ "the city" track, but guess not. Then again, I suppose the original Sonic all stars racing didn't have a Sonic Unleashed/ Colors/ 4 track either, so should have seen that coming...

That's why there's all these airballoons. Just your average Saturday market, all the local housewives/ guys flaming up the old airballoon and flying up in the air to get fresh vegetables. Oh, thanks for ruining the joke Altough honestly I'm very happy we get a track actually set IN the streets instead of just in the sky. So, with the airtrack clearly being a diffrent Spagonia track, and I swear I saw 2 diffrent versions of the Wisp track as well... I guess we're back to Sonic all stars racing 1 track selections? 3 track versions of each location instead of 16 unique locations? Suppose that makes sense, this clearly having a lower budget.

I would have called it Team Chaotic. As in, chaotically thrown together. Myeah, figured with only 15 characters, one team would have been random fan favorites crammed together. Good to see Vector shares Amy and Sonic's narcasism of naming the team after his own. ...... Next time there's teams, I want Sonic, Amy and Vector to be in one team. If only so we can watch them battle each other to the death over which name will be the team moniker.

Only now realize that the 7th zone of the Sonic Lost world is right next to the 4th zone.... Does that mean Sonic is taking a freaking DETOUR to Silent forest and Sky zone while his planet is being sucked dry and Amy's pleading for her life? Hah. Then again, considering the Tornado was fixed up in the first zone and they still go on foot, I guess Sonic was never concerned about getting there in time. And where are the flying donuts on this world map? And- Oops, off topic. Errr... I agree with Detective Mike that Team Sonic Racing looks good enough, I like the art style. As energetic and exciting Sonic racing transformed was, it could sometimes be a little too chaotic for it's own good. Especially in the more realistic tracks where the road you're driving on has the same color sceme as the scenery. Then you really have to have the levels memorized. That said, yeah, Team Sonic Racing is really looking generic and dull. I forgave planet Wisp for looking conventional, it's the first track and I liked that we were getting a normal Speedway for once, always wanted a more conventional Daytona style speedway in Sonic Sega all stars racing. But yeah, Spagonia being a sky track, and the generic looking snow level... It's about time I expect them to ramp up the crazy and energy, because this ain't impressive. So weird that Mario kart has way more epic and crazy looking tracks then Sonic. Come on Sonic Team, Mario is out- Sonic-ing you, that's pathetic. Eh, I like Sonic Riders Just wish the gameplay wasn't so technical and complicated. Zero Gravity is slightly better. Sonic Free riders is pure evil, tough.

I wonder if Ice mountain is actually Ice mountain zone (From Sonic advance 1) or just Generic the Name that happens to coincide with an older level, like Metropolis and mystical jungle in Sonic forces. If it is, then wow, after 7 years of references to older games we finally get our first Sonic advance homage, other then music.