Status Updates

I'm sorry to hear that man. Wishing you guys the best.

19 years for any pooch is a good run.

Be sad that is over, but be happy that you had em for so long too.

Was a bit of a boring one

Seemed a bit undercooked compared to his other ones honestly. 

I mean, what DON'T we know about Sonic Forces' development at this point? We literally picked apart everything about it. 

I've not watched it yet but from my own understanding there's not really a lot to say about Forces. It's a naff game for sure, but not one with much of a troubled development. 

There isn't much to say about it. He only did it in the first place because people kept requesting it

it's a boring game; even down to its development

@Blue BloodI have been summoned 

https://i.imgur.com/2npxhky.jpg (full page)

speaking of

https://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/26680-sonic-forces-development-hell-is-it-true-or-just-lies/#comment-1306310

does anyone else remember the post/article that he made that detailed this much further? I've been trying to find it and assumed it had been deleted, but it doesn't make much sense if it's still being brought up in 2020 and 2021 still in the same way

Only watched it once when it first came out and loved it, especially compared to the first. Then found out everyone hates it and still not sure why.

@Stasis a bit cluttered, Sony really tried to push their Sinister Six stuff. The Richard Parker stuff is dull and the Peter/Gwen relationship yoyo got a bit far fetched among others.

We had our first snow of the season in the UK as well.

Ours was not quite as peaceful.

I am sorry to hear that. I hope you and yours are safe and well.

Two possible cases: first is that a lot of whales boast what they do on social media or even try to capitalize on that via streaming.

Second is that companies probably have charts that indicate where the flux of money comes from and they assume the countries that give the highest values are the one containing whales.

I forget which TED talk or whatever talks about this but yeah, companies have tools to chart this shit down to the day and user. It's one of the many reasons why everyone and their mom has their own dedicated user account system now. Makes shit dead simple to track.

So when games come out with some terrible mtx implementations, a lot of the time that shit was made with the express purpose to push those specific user's buttons.

And lord knows we'll never actually see this data as that'd give away the whole game the industry is currently playing.

stem

I'm likely going to get it on Steam.

PS5

Damn, you hate Lost World more than Rise of Lyric? What'd it do?

On one hand, Sonic Rush is god tier and more people should recognize that.

On the other hand, I'll choose to ignore your opinion on Unleahsed and pretend like I didn't see that Heresy.

@Enesephus physical and emotional pain

In al seriousness tho, it's a game i personally really have a lot of problems with. Gameplay, plot, visual and level design, mechanics that could have been pretty great on paper but fall really flat, etc, etc. I could almost write an entire 1000 or more word paragraph on why i dislike this game so much, but i don't wanna waste any time or energy writing it, and i actually was excited for it back in the day until it released.

I could have also put Sonic Forces into that tier as well, but Lost World already did enough damage to the point where i couldn't really care about Forces that much

You should give Sonic Battle a try! Its akin to a "Sonic Smash Bros." minus death pits. The overall story is good too; with rare glimpses at character's lives outside of saving the world. I haven't played it in years and want to get a copy again.

"This is bad and I'm going to make fun of it" is laughing at it.

"This is bad but I like it anyway" feels more like laughing with it, since you're acknowledging your own enjoyment of the bad thing while still finding it humorous.

"With" implies both the comedian and the subject they target can have a laugh together.  Of course, comedy is subjective and the target may just feel offended anyway. 

People like George Carlin might throw hard jabs at everyone in his audience, but they all erupt into cheers anyway; they knew what they paid their money for. It helps George his a chill dude at heart. (Well, that could be an example of the crowd laughing with him when he's laughing at them, but)

Laughing at = laughing at someone/thing's expense. There's a victim. 

Laughing with = everyone involved finds it funny. There is no victim. 

the birb gang just keeps growing

they must be stopped

row row fight the power

Instead you just have stupid westerners that won't shut up about Waluigi.

That is somehow more tolerable since everyone acknowledges those are people are dumb compare to the shit Sonic has to deal with.

oh they definitely get complaints about not having/using enough characters

it's just that mario games are pretty consistently great so not every discussion is about trying to fix them

Yea, because Nintendo actually know how to make video games and can tell those people to stfu.

*Looks at all the complaints about lack of story, Miyamoto ruining the franchise, the roster in the spin-offs  and the state of the RPGs*
 

Y-yeah sure 

Its ok, people will still give the games 10/10 and praise them to high heaven. Those people are morons unlike us enlightened Sonic fans who truly understand Sonic.

Mario fans are more welcoming of all the stupid stuff those characters get put through than Sonic fans are with theirs', cause they never get as stupid. Peach may have been made just to keep getting kidnapped and Toad's always the earsplitting freak that gets everywhere, but I don't see much focus on retiring or killing them off for their uselessness as much as calls for improving their status. You probably wouldn't got judged as hard if you like those two than if you liked Sally or Jet or Classic Sonic as a separate character. 

Plus, barring plenty of exceptions, Sonic parodies lean towards laughing at Sonic fan these days, especially when it's not made by a fan. Less so with Mario parody videos. No matter how much they humiliate that poor plumber and how big of a psychotic asscrack they turn him into, they do at least give some aura of trying to laugh with Mario fans. (How they execute that may vary, as they clearly go too far at times).

That being said, Sonic's criticism is big enough that the developers openly try to address it. On the other glove, Mario's superior track record brings greater acceptance, regardless of the few big sour spots it has (weak rosters, bland story, RPG quality decline). Which is what unfortunately led me to believe those sour spots can be "safely" ignored.

I can’t even safely ignored considering how many people have been skeptical about the movie and talking about that it’s hard to do it since Miyamoto is involved and whatnot. 

Mario and Sonic are much different series in that regard. Mario's games usually have much less story and always stick to the status quo, so there isn't much room for character development; also, gameplay-wise, Mario characters, even when put together in a game as playable, usually play all the same with minor tweaks at best, so unless someone is really a fan of one specific character, nobody is going to care if they are playable or not.

Mario 3D World had 5 playable characters btw, and they all played the same except Peach being able to glide and Rosalina being able to double jump, in a game where everyone has gliding skills if you get the right power-up.

Sonic used to have a bit of character development in the past, and gameplay-wisse multiple characters (whem done right) can change the experience a lot due to their special abilities. This is why some people (me included) wish they were included in more games.

Stuff like Shadow or Metal Sonic being a reskin of Sonic is really uninteresting and I don't really care of that BTW.

Imagine a Kirby game, that used to have 20 to 50 abilities, but now the developers decided to remove them all except Sword because it's the most popular one, and they want to get Sword right before trying to add more abilities in the games. People have complained about no abilities in Epic Yarn... it's not exactly the same thing, but gameplay-wise Kirby's abilities are a bit like Sonic's playable characters.

@Iko And which one of these series is the more successful franchise :V Even as someone who likes how Sonic does things most of the time, I'd be a fucking liar if I said Sonic did anything better than Mario in that regard.

At some point, people just wanna play a good game and most of the time, Sonic games aren't good when they try to be "different"  and I say this who deeply loves and respects the Sonic series.

Yeah I agree, but I think that the issues with Sonic aren't a fault of the characters. If Sonic games were constantly good, the series would have been very popular too, maybe on the levels of Mario. The success of the movie proves that the IP is still popular and part of the pop culture, what's keeping people away from the series is the about 20 years of mediocre games and the amount of design flaws and glitches present in most of the Sonic games.

Popularity anyway is not really indicative of a game's quality. as an example, Mario is way more popular than Hollow Knight, but this does not mean that Hollow Knight is bad or done wrong, it's still a freaking masterpiece (at least IMO).

Mario is popular BECAUSE his games are good, and Sonic is generally mocked because his games are generally subpar and lacking. Popularity isn't indicative of quality, but they are closely related. 

The characters aren't the problem sure, but you don't you don't see any other platforming franchises before and now attempting to do the things Sonic does with his do you? At most, the focus is generally on one or two characters and not the dozens that Sonic generally tries to accommodate. 

Something's has got to give; you either try to make all of these characters relevant and turn the game into a bloated mess, or you keep things focused and consistent. Like you said, if Sonic games were good, nobody would really be complaining all that much and even if they did, they would be ignored.

Yeah like Knuckles

So...all of them at this point?

@dbzfan7 Hey, if it helps us ditch Forces Tails, I'm in.

My idea is Shadow the Hedgehog 2 would cast Shadow as a detective investigating the murders of Sonic's shitty friends, when he is framed for the murders himself. Can Shadow stay ahead of the fastest thing alive long enough to clear his name?

Quote

It is eventually revealed that Shadow has amnesia yet again and actually did kill everyone. Plot twist!

They should kill off Sonic and Eggman too

That's just Sonic Shuffle 2

Also, unless it's Boom or Labyrinth Sonic, any Sonic would win the round before "Red Light" ever gets called

“Yeah like Knuckles”

Now you know you’re wrong for that one. Lol

Everyone here is wrong, why single out me

youd basically have to kill everyone from tails on

Man I know y'all ain't talking bout killing off knuckles

Shadow would literally be the sole survivor, he's the only one who has used a gun.

Not only has Omega used guns before, but Omega is a gun.

Machines can be shut down.

Animals can be put down.

Happy birthday 

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!🥳

Happy Birthday!

Who wouldn't be happy about that?

The guy who voiced Luigi in Mario Kart 64 apparently...

Getting a promotion before you even get the job.

His mistake was high jumping into the second floor audition room via the window instead of rushing in through the door and throwing turnips at everyone at high speed.

And then you ultimately get shafted for Mario's VA doing both a few years afterward, plus the overseas version of the game you auditioned for

Wait, seriously? Someone auditioned for Toad and is upset they got promoted to Luigi?!

He really wanted to be Toad...and since this was during that "era" being Luigi was just the p2 option.

infinite is in more games thanks to super smash bros ultimate

Heavies made it into the IDW comics. (Plus they have at least a shot at coming back to a game someday)

Well Mania 2 ain't seeing the light of day any time soon so they aren't going any far themselves either, beyond the occasional classic related tie in

Unless you get a Mania 2, they may as well be just as dead. 

Nah, they threw Eggman a birthday party.

Yoshi may come in different colors, but he can't change color by himself like Espio, let alone turn invisible, nor can he stick to walls. He's more of a fanciful creature like how Bowser's a fire breathing turtle. Plus Espio isn't treated like a pet for Sonic to ride on like a horse.

Ironically, Espio seldom fights or mobilizes with his tongue despite its length. (My headcanon is that he finds it embarrassing)

^^^ made me lol

HEY WAIT A MINUTE

nah both suck

bring back whisker and johnny

Bring back Whisker and Johnny for their boss battle theme 

Mephiles 4 life.

Bring back void

I'm also for bringing back Whisker.

The Battle Kukkus, Witchcart, and Fang would be welcome returns as well.

You'll get Zavok and you'll like him. 

Of all the Zeti, they keep giving us the most boring one.

They'll all return and they'll be roommates. 

Y'all laugh at Infinite right up until we have to put up with Zavok's boring ass in Frontiers again.

Anything is better than Zavok for the 4th time