Status Updates

So this is the Switch Pro folks wouldn't shut up about? I can already hear the bitching over dashing the sky-high expectations they set themselves if the bigger screen is all there is. 

Still, a bigger screen is nice and all- just hope the hardware itself can be tweaked down the line.

🥅👨‍💻

I'm so sorry to hear this.

Nowhere?

Ok, something weird happened to this site on my phone. It's back to normal now.

You bought the Breath of the Wild machine on Breath of the Wild day without also purchasing Breath of the Wild? That's wild 

IIRC, I got Breath of the Wild after Shovel Knight, because I watched someone's playthrough on YouTube and was like, "OK, that looks like fun".

The only other Zelda game I'd played until completion before BOTW was the GameCube Version of Wind Waker. 

The attachment rate for BotW was crazy in the first month or two after release. More copies of the game had been sold for the Switch than Switches themselves, so it's surprising when someone says "I bought a Switch for Shovel Knight". 

Actually, I bought a Switch once I found out Sonic Mania was going to be on it.

And at that point, Mania was still slated for a Spring release.

I know people have been talking about directors and other figures in the games' development and how they should go but...

Who do you want instead? I really don't see anyone trying to make alternatives anywhere other than saying "burn the witch!"

Don't necessarily agree with Colors being the worst in the "trilogy" but even considering that the that still one hit vs FOUR misses and he clearly has no idea how to iterate on the things he did well so get him out of here 

Idk, not sounding much cliché, but I'd mostly blame media and/or pseudo-gamers who believe anniversary games are something obligatory or which gives the enterprise some nice status.

As I crossed a post with this same subject today on Reddit, it is not like all games must be a celebration (despite they can) and especially have Classic Sonic + Green Hill being a must-have. Ok, Generations was cool, Mania, pretty good game but the concept is getting repetitive, Sonic Forces: WHY CLASSIC SONIC IS EVEN THERE?

So yeah, first, I'd give Sonic Team as much time as they want to deliver a finished game, secondly, I don't mind if the game is a 20/25/30 anniversary game. Cool, add the badge before the game start, but put some new content. Sonic Adventure 2 was like that (Which was a sequel to an already ongoing 'franchise' and included a nice bonus Green Hill), Sonic Riders was like that, Sonic 4 followed the 20th anniversary hype, heck! Even Sonic '06 wins in this aspect.

Hopefully, 35th, 40th and 45th aren't much a remarkable milestone.

@Crow the BOOLET Change. Someone who's got different ideas about what the game should and shouldn't contain. Hiroshi Miyamoto directed Generations. 

I know what you mean though. But my point is simply that Kishimoto has a pretty poor track record. I can't imagine doing an awful lot worse than what we currently have.

@Soniman Colours has its up sides and certainly isn't bad, but I think set the precedent for everything that the series is currently doing wrong. It's the best of the bunch that Kishimoto directed, and the worst of the boost series minus Forces. That's subjective though, of course.

Anything he did right in Colours seems almost to be a fluke considering what he did both before and after. Lost World was an attempt at something new that turned out to be a right old mess. And Forces was Colours-Generations, iterating only on the worst of each. I think Sean described Forces as "trying to make Starlight Carnival Acts 2 and 4 into a whole game".

Hmm... Morio...

"Hoo hoo, eccellente..."

Its probably extremely cynical to say this, but its based on history; even if they got someone new and brought fresh life into the series, its more than likely the same result will happen again. The game will start fresh and new and everyone will love it, but Sega will milk it dry without really improving upon it until we get sick of it and asked for the last good thing again. 

I don't want to think like this, but I really have no reason not to. 

I don't know why you'd expect a delay. It's niche 3D platformer that was mostly outsourced to a small independent studio outside of SE. The game needs to be taken back to the drawing board. There's no saving it from being an aggressively mediocre platformer at best.

Given who's in charge, I'm not surprised.

Exhibit A on why giving Sonic back to the OG team isn't going to make a difference 

@Indigo Rush I have NEVER forgotten the damage Naka did to the franchise. It's why I've been on those trains of thought thinking he's the "savior" the franchise supposedly needs again.

I get the feeling they want it out before the end of their financial year.

Naka-san played a vital role in the birth of the series and definitely deserves respect, but he clearly lost the plot on what Sonic's overall appeal was. 

Naoto Oshima is a sweetheart tho

This is Exhibit Z. Exhibits A through Y would be the naff games that Naka and Oshima have put out both since leaving SEGA and even those naff Sonic games that Naka produced whilst at SEGA. He was captain of the '06 ship and he got in a lifeboat when be saw the iceberg.

But even with that in mind, I'd still be really interested in seeing exactly what Oshima, Naka and Yasuhara would cook up if they ever wanted to return to the series.

At least like Cyberpunk 2077 crew were clearly ashamed at how disasterous the "finished" product turned at and pulled it off online stores, to show they're willing to go through again to make up for it. But this ain't no AAA game we talking here. This a Mighty No. 9'er that'll be dead on arrival.

Good thing that demo was such a rotten appitizer that we've all jumped of this train before it derails.

It should be noted, its not entirely Naka's fault. The studio he was given kind of fucking sucks too. 

I'm not really convinced it would be good, but I would take a Yuji Naka sonic game over another Kishimoto joint. I'd like the next Sonic game to be great, but I'd settle for "interesting" at this point. 

@Supah Berry I find it strange but... Balan's demo actually got positive reception from some critics. Whilst Nintendo Life and a few savaged it, some were like "this is a really good and original 3D platformer that was tons of fun" with absolutely no recognition of the flaws that others have found. 

Give a couple of years so he'll be able to say "Don't be late" to his child when he has to go to school.

He already was, I'm pretty sure! 

He already was a dad, but good for him still.

"Julian", huh?

I like to think ShTH is Shadow telling the story himself and embellishing how fucking annoying Sonic is.

@Zaysho

He just tells the story differently every time.

Shadow: "And then I shouted 'Goodbye Doctor' and killed you!"
Eggman: "What?! No you didn't, I'm right here!"

Which is of course nothing compared to the version where he claims he blew up the entire Earth.

@Zaysho Is that why Shadow is a jerk in modern times, because the stories are told mainly from Sonic's perspective. 

Sonic: "Yea, and when I asked to help me save the citizens, he was all [Not, interested] so it was up to me" 

Shadow: "I hate you so very much"

@Dr. Mechano New headcanon is he's just telling Charmy bedtime stories involving the whole cast.

I'll always appreciate Archie for keeping them alive and relevant for decades.

That is a good point. I'd still love for Sonic Prime to bring them back if they use any pre-existing Sonic Continuities and I wouldn't say no to IDW doing a continuation of the Archie Comic but honestly it's just not gonna happen. They had their time and it's over now.

I feel like a lot of people would've felt better about the Freedom Fighters if we had ended out on that Universe arc focused on them, or that issue that was gonna act as the epilogue to the Shattered World Crisis, and show the FF splitting off to do their own things.

Apart of me feels like the sting is just how unceremoniously things felt for awhile with Archie. We had a full arc about tearing the Freedom Fighters apart, with Sally being roboticised, Antoine being left in a coma, Bunnie losing her cybernetics, Rotor being fairly out of action and his hands tied by the council, and Nicole forced into exile by Naugus' machinations.

It was already lame as fuck how we never got a resolution to anything set up with bringing the FF back stronger than ever. Sally was never deroboticised in the old continuity, Bunnie was implied to be turned into a Dark Egg Legionnaire in order to get her cybernetics back, Antoine remained in his coma, Nicole made up with Mina, and came home, but her attempt to restore her trust with the citizens was torn apart by Tails Doll, and Rotor got nothing really.

Then with the new continuity, we had the group back together, we had a new canon and lore for them, and some of what was explored with them was great (Spark of Life in particular), but then we still got zero resolution or climax in the end with the Shattered World Crisis because SEGA mandated a random Sonic 1-3 adaption that copied portions of the story wholesell without much addition, and then they nixed the entire thing before we even got the Sonic 3 issue, meanwhile the big focus arc on the Freedom Fighters got subsequentically delayed and cancelled.

As much as you can appreciate how long Archie did keep them going, it really did suck how many times they got the raw end of the stick towards the end.

I'm not really convinced that they're gone forever.

I'm still holding out hope that Sally will at least be put into Speed Battle or something.

Part of me not having much hope is I believe Sega is just utterly sick of Archie after the legal troubles and wanna distance themselves from as much of that as possible combined with the already oppressive mandates. 

Nothing ever really dies with this series unless its like, universally revilled 

Even if the Freedom Fighters do come back, it's going to be in a much smaller capacity than how they've been known. So maybe it's a blessing that they're gone now. If they were to come back, you can be damn sure they're playing second fiddle to Sonic & Tails. 

I'd rather have something I like in moderation then never again.

Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts were rarely used in both Archie continuities but I still got a huge smile every time they did appear.

Bro, several years ago, I once said on this very forum that there would never be a Sonic 4. People also never though Mighty and Ray would come back in any official capacity.

Let that be a lesson over saying “never.” If the demand or will is there, you never know what will come back.

Did you turn off the EXP share?

Yeah. It would be a bit pointless to impose all of these rules and leave the EXP Share turned on. And in addit, I'm trying to grind against wild Pokémon as little as possible, unless I'm seriously far behind for some reason. Basically the goal is for my team to be on par level-wise sign all of the regular trainers. Any Pokémon game is easy if you just use brute force. It's kinda fun having to rely on actual strategies for a change. 

I've not played a lot today so I'm only up to Cyllage City. 4 level 20s, a 17 and an 18. The gym leader here has 25s, so I'm actually under levelled

I hope that you're father gets through this safely, and that everyone else in your family does too 

I hope your father gets through safely.

Hope you guys make it through. This is one of my family's biggest fears right now.

Yes and the amazing thing is he's really good in the role.

I'm still waiting for Bowser Golf. 

I moreso want to see of they'll get the "Happy 25th Bday Pokemon" event out of the way so it would decrease the chances of getting a Pokemon rep. This upcoming official tournement implies they might be leaning away from that, assuming they didn't wanna wait till it gets shown off.

The first season must have done really well for them to consider doing that.

I think a show being commissioned for more than one season in advance is actually something done commonly, at least if the project is backed enough.

The Thomas and Friends reboot has similarly been backed for two seasons of 100 episodes.

@E-122-Psi True. And while I looked around, nobody had anything nice to say about that.

It's a pity in hindsight it was given off to Hulu long before HBOMax was brought along, leaving it unable to join Tiny Toons and all the other Warner revivals. Both Cartoon Network and Nick about to go at each other, and Animaniacs sits alone locked in their "prison" ironically owned by Disney.

But hey, never said more Animaniacs was a bad thing

@E-122-Psi

The difference is that only one of those two are competent enough to count their Chicken Boos before they hatch

The show must be doing pretty well!

@Supah Berry I guess the thing is that it's Thomas. He's been on tons of crap before, they know ANYTHING with him will sell to SOME level. Same for most Marvel or Disney brands.

Animaniacs is a less assured one since it's been a dead franchise for two decades, though it seems it has proven to still have a solid fanbase.

I just came to echo what E-122-PSI said, in that usually networks greenlight a show for two seasons, but they don't announce the second season until after the first season has finished airing.

That Hulu greenlit a third season already though, definitely sound like they have faith in it.

I still think about how Shadow had a chip on his shoulder because Knuckles called him a jerk in Archie and want that in the games.

A DATE? YOU THINK THIS A JOKE, YOU LITTLE BRAT?

Gets me everytime. I love Vector in Heroes.

Cream telling it like it is.

@Zaysho I like that Omega's robotic sass and Silver's neuroses made it into Team Sonic Racing so why not.

Cream's a tough one, I'm not big on X or Rush moments where she just straight up breaks character to insult characters to their face (Rush implies Amy regularly commits child abuse over it, yikes), but I like those other instances where she tries to, in the politest and most gingerly way possible, state the characters are completely and utterly talking out of their ass. XD

Banter and sarcasm is generally something that colours dialogue well, but needs good character execution. Or we get stuff like Sonic the Comic or Free Riders where the cast just seem like rude demeaning jerks who don't even like each other.

Is she the one with the chains?

Yeeep