Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed...!

[Winston]

This is another part I don't get.

This means they couldn't think of any ideas for Vectorman to play that they liked, or that stayed true to the character.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Andrew GarFred

[PsychoJosh]

Keeping true to his character would see him in motorbike form,

The thing about him is that he can transform into ANYTHING. He can transform into a buggy, or a tank. And he would necessarily have to transform into a boat and a jet, neither of which he's ever done in his games.

I mean I understand that he's not in the game, I just wish they wouldn't fabricate excuses like this one... just be up front about it, Sumo didn't plan for him to be in the game, that's all that needs to be said.

Edited July 31, 2012 by PsychoJosh

[Sean]

We're not discussing this anymore.

Vectorman's not in the game. Deal, please.

[Pawn]

Well they can only add so many obscure characters until they draw line anyway. If one has a lot of issues while another doesn't, it makes sense to go with the latter.

I'm excited to see who they chose from the Megadrive era, now that they've mentioned it...

EDIT: Sorry, wrong thread.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Lungo

[S0L]

So, first of all, thanks to most folk for the support, I think you realise that we have to break a few hearts in the making of this game as we can't please absolutely everyone. It's just the reality of budgets and schedules.

But... Just for once, I will take a couple of people to task

Alex Kidd, Opa Opa, Ulala, Bonanza Bros, Zobio & Zobiko, Vyse. How are those for facts? Do I really need to go on? Using logic you can come to a factual conclusion. Using logic based on other characters included in both ASR games, it's pretty damn obvious that Vectorman not being included has nothing to do with his obscurity.

Logic, my friend. Logic. I use that instead of believing every bit of PR a Sumo representative chooses to feed us.

First a friendly reminder. Whilst both myself and Rex do things 'On the clock' in terms of official PR, our activities on the forums are generally done in our free time.

Do I consider this PR, or do I consider this being as clear and transparent and truthful as we can be within the limitations of NDA's and other rules that we have in place? Very much the latter. We *don't* have to come and talk to people. In fact, I think you'll find we're actually something of a rarity. We care about the game, we care about your views. We do our best as Producer and Lead Artist respectively to see if we can in any possible way sneak things into the game that the fans will appreciate. We've proved this time and time again.

So it's slightly galling to think that you consider us doing some kind of spin, when really all we're trying to do is answer questions, explain why decisions are taken, and you know, have a bit of fun talking to people.

But we work to limits of the business. I can't add characters into the game on a whim, or change the direction of over 100 people in multiple countries who are striving to deliver this game over multiple platforms. That is logical. If we did otherwise, the game wouldn't ship *at all* never matter on time.

Do we try and represent all ages of SEGA? Yes. It's one thing I'm personally proud of that we've managed to achieve. Have you seen Ryo in a game since Shenmue? Not until ASR. Has another game managed to pull in Vyse and Gilius successfully whilst being true to the originals? Probably not. For all the criticism today on one character de-confirm, you still have no idea of the content we've got that is going to surprise you like never before.

Yet, for everything we give you, some people opt to chose to ignore this with 'This character isn't important to me' or 'Sumo don't care and will make up any old excuse' when really, we go through painstaking decisions every single day to make sure we do our best. This is evident in the whole team working late nights, weekends, foregoing holidays and foregoing seeing their family and friends. In that, we clearly aren't logical.

So don't use your internet logic to deduce how we think or what we sacrifice in the making of these games. You aren't the one with any responsibility to not only the business or SEGA or the fanbase to make any kind of claims. You're welcome to your opinion of course, but I'm afraid you are wrong.

You might not like the decisions we take, but at the end of the day, someone has to make those hard choices and be prepared to stand up for the consequences. I've done my best to do this today, can you say you've been entirely fair?

Yeah...

So wait, Vectorman's too old, but Golden Axe isn't? There are licensing problems, but he might cameo in the game anyway?

...well, whatever you say, S0L.

You know Josh, again you are more than happy to partially quote me and then run with it. Did I ever at any point say that we discount all old characters? Or did I say we have limitations to how much we can include and have to pick what we feel is attractive to both fans and non-fans, all whilst ensuring the gameplay works for entirely valid reasons? I may have alluded there are other factors that I can't officially discuss which may also have prevented why a certain character isn't playable, but you're on shaky grounds to use that as a basis of any form of debate.

Re-read the post in it's entirety, absorb it, and realise I'm explaining exactly why we made that call. I've always credited you with some intellegence, whilst you love an argument, you usually have some reasons to do so, even if not everyone understands you stance. But I really find it hard to want to have a debate when you fall back into arguing that white is black, and then lower yourself to sarcastic comments. Really Josh?

Like I say, we're not looking for constant praise, if we did, we certainly wouldn't be de-confirming things, pulling you down to earth once in a while or being realistic on how the game is made. We care about the game, we really do. It's what drives us to take on these crazy projects.

Let's be realistic, how many other firms can you name that would even attempt a game of this complexity? First the whole transformation on vehicles and tracks, then the sheer number of IP's and stakeholders both past and present. Then once you have that shortlist, name exactly how many then will come and interact with the fanbase in open and frank discussion.

I'll give you a tip. You can count it on exactly one finger.

That's not me being arrogant, it's not me threatening to pull it, it's simply a reality check. If we didn't care, it'd be very easy to not do this.

Anyway... Out of rant mode. What I can say is you want to pay attention tomorrow, there might just be some new reveals

---

S0L

---

[PsychoJosh]

Alright! S0L! I wasn't being sarcastic. You have your reasons and I accept them, is what I meant when I said "whatever you say". Of course I have questions, but I don't mean to slide them under your fingernails. I suppose I am a little indignant about this news, it is gnawing on me a bit. But I'm sorry that came off differently. I understand that you're working hard on this. I don't want to be misunderstood as ungrateful. All I said was that I just find a few of the reasons you gave for VM's exclusion to be disingenuous.

I'm not crying over it, that would be pointless.

Edited August 1, 2012 by PsychoJosh

[AngryBitter]

Hey S0L... There are a few things that disappointed me from the reveals so far, but I'll let you know the work you put in the characters, vehicles, courses, is nothing short of mindblowing, and I can see this game being the best kart racer ever.

I appreciate what you guys do, coming out here to answer the fans even though you're not required to, I really respect that. Keep up the good work.

[Sega DogTagz]

I think those Genesis IP's are rubbing off on S0L. He's got that 90's SEGA swagger going haha.

I do have another question for S0L though, when this game does ship in a few months, will you stick around for a week or two to answer a few post-release questions? or should we expect you to disappear in a haze of celebratory parting. lol

[SumoRex]

I think those Genesis IP's are rubbing off on S0L. He's got that 90's SEGA swagger going haha.

I do have another question for S0L though, when this game does ship in a few months, will you stick around for a week or two to answer a few post-release questions? or should we expect you to disappear in a haze of celebratory parting. lol

We'll stick around.

I imagine there'll be a few post release questions... (lol)

[Lady Soniko]

someone say new reveals tomorrow?? *dances about like a giddy school girl*

[Carbo]

Or maybe today.

Because, well,

he posted it an hour after midnight.

In the UK.

Time.

[The-Master-Board]

I wanna call SOL a "D-word" too!

-Dedicated!-

He (he I assume?) takes his own time to come here and give us some info on the game when he really doesn't have to and people act like this?

Honestly people here should really think about the game makers and the process that they go through to bring us these great games before brattily claiming hate for them not putting your favourite character in their game.

That being said I would LOVE any kind of Nack the Weasel/Fang the sniper reference (preferably playable ) *wink wink* but I'm not gonna go about calling people names if he isn't in the game.

[- Eternal Paradox -]

Can I just take this time to say, SOL, REX, everybody at Sumo, a massive THANK YOU for taking the time out to come and dicuss the game's development here. Seeing how a game is made and developed makes me more enhusatic and excited for the game itself, and as someone who aspires to be a game developer myself, it's nice to see how the games are developed.

It's clear that you guys are SEGA fans yourself, and you've tried to communicate with the fans, because you're excited for this game, and you want to share it. All your hard work, you want the fans to see it. You want fellow SEGA fans to see it.

The real shame is, that as always, there are often a lot of really imature bastards on the internet. Trolls, haters, and people who hate every aspect of a franchise but still have the nerve to call themselves "fans".

Don't let them get you down. Don't let them win. Because at the end of the day, there are still a lot of bright stars, people who are grateful, happy, and opitimistic, and love what you're doing.

I mean, this game is going to be AWESOME. We're undoubtably all envious. You're working with SEGA? Wow. And you're not just making any old crappy fangame with character's shoehorned in here and there. You're making an beautiful, amazing game, with a lot of thought and effort.

Well done all of you. I shall defiantely be buying this game.

[Ethan Thomas]

I wanna call SOL a "D-word" too!

-Dedicated!-

He (he I assume?) takes his own time to come here and give us some info on the game when he really doesn't have to and people act like this?

Honestly people here should really think about the game makers and the process that they go through to bring us these great games before brattily claiming hate for them not putting your favourite character in their game.

That being said I would LOVE any kind of Nack the Weasel/Fang the sniper reference (preferably playable ) *wink wink* but I'm not gonna go about calling people names if he isn't in the game.

This picture still fascinates me. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/galapagosturtle/alt/nackweaselallstarsracing.png

Who is Fang/Nack even owned by?

[Thrippa]

Yes the first game was pretty amazing and this one looks so much more so; pity some people have to use their internet anonymity to act like jerks. I greatly appreciate SOL and Sumo giving us the info they do.

On another topic, I just 'ordered' the game from Amazon, which for some reason has it marked as 'Out of Stock' rather than 'Not yet Released'. I assume they'll send me a note in a few days telling me they can't give me a ship date, then a second one saying they can't get any info on it. Unless of course there was some secret release date that SOL forgot to mention . . .

[Your Vest Friend]

Who is Fang/Nack even owned by?

Sega. He's at least definitely theirs unlike the likes of Metal Knuckles and Tails Doll (who seem to be in more of a grey area; specifically, they're owned by Sega but Jazwares claimed that Sega rejected them on the grounds of being not Sonic Team's business).

Edited August 1, 2012 by VEDJ-F

[Blue Blood]

Who is Fang/Nack even owned by?

SEGA. There's always been rumours that he and Mighty belong to someone else, and there's absolutely no proof for this. In fact, the opposite exists. SEGA still use Nack through Game Gear re-releases, included both in a poll at the launch of Channel and gave both a cameo in Generations. SEGA don't use him in new games because they don't want to.

[Your Vest Friend]

This is the only article relating to the rumour there is. Despite the fact it's a TSSZ article, the rumour actually started on, as stated in the text, the old SSMB.

[Blue Blood]

This is the only article relating to the rumour there is. Despite the fact it's a TSSZ article, the rumour actually started on, as stated in the text, the old SSMB.

The rumour has existed since the days I used to browse Sonic Cult before when Heroes was new. Regardless, dumb rumour is dumb and we should get back on topic.

It's funny that the original ASR is now on mobile devices and is comparable to the console versions in term of content, when to begin with we only had this Gameloft version:

Ghost Sonic power up?

I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing how ASRT holds up on the less powerful systems this time. The DS version last time was an admirable effort, though not quite as good as the console version because of some of the gameplay differences.

[Jango]

"When the game hits the shelves". Sounds good to me. I always screw my own surprise element by watching gameplays, leaks and news before the game releases. But I only do this because I can't afford buying a US$100 (yes, that's the price of a new game here...) game and don't like it. So I'll stick here watching every reveal and every gameplay, if I don't like it, no more raging, I'll just not buy it

Edited August 1, 2012 by Jango

[Detective Shadzter]

It's now August and we still have someone posting a late E3 preview.

http://www.cheatcc.com/xbox360/rev/sonicandallstarsracingtransformedpreview.html#.UBllzmH2aSo

[Doctor MK]

Bonus Edition alert!

http://blogs.sega.com/2012/08/01/sonic-all-stars-racing-transformed-bonus-edition-announced/

OutRun Bay track + Metal Sonic confirmed as exclusive extras for this edition.

[Detective Shadzter]

Bonus Edition alert!

http://blogs.sega.co...tion-announced/

OutRun Bay track + Metal Sonic confirmed as exclusive extras for this edition.

FUCK YEAH!

News it naow!!!

EDIT:

Oh, it looks like Europe is getting a 'Limited Edition', with more details to be announced soon. Hope it has the same stuff.

There will be Limited Edition for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed in Europe. More details will follow soon.

[Indigo Rush]

...someone please tell me that this will be available on PC...

[Marcello]

There will be Limited Edition for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed in Europe. More details will follow soon.

Sounds like Europe's will be different.