Super Sonic's effect on and role in the series

[Kuzu]

It usually is! You couldn't count how many games have some annoying halfassed minigame shoved in where it doesn't belong. Wasting the final boss on one, when if anything it should be a test of all the skills you've been using throughout the game, is even worse than most.

And I'm pretty sure just as many games have minigames that aren't annoying in the slightest, most final bosses don't adhere to that rule and thinking anything that's different is badly designed just sounds like being close minded.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Why do people act like the Super fights are a completely different genre of gameplay? I mean most of the complaints I see are having to master last minute controls after learning the whole game.......but those controls usually are just "Press B to Boost forward" I think the only game where I can say playing as Super was a problem was Sonic Adventure 2, and even then it's that hard.

It comes down to expectations. The absolute final climax boss of a story is generally expected to test the skills you've built up through playing the entire game, and apart from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Heroes, the Super Sonic boss fight really is a completely different genre of gameplay.

Sonic is a platformer. When the final boss isn't fought as a platformer it's understandable that that would feel jarring - especially when it keeps being done over and over. It doesn't have to be a bad thing when done in moderation; I still think Doomsday Zone and Perfect Chaos are fantastic final bosses.

Generations is a good example of the problem with a mandatory Super Sonic final boss, being that there is no boss at all that tests your skills through the whole game. Classic Sonic doesn't even get a second boss, and Modern really could do with a harder boss than Egg Dragoon at the end.

[Kuzu]

Isn't that a general problem with the bosses rather than one exclusive with the Super fights?

[Diogenes]

All the other bosses in, say, Generations operate under the same rules as the rest of the game. I think the only one that's a significant deviation is the Shadow fight, due to the weird powerup gimmick, but even in that you're still controlling Modern Sonic the same as always. But when you get to the final boss you're thrown into a fight where you fly around and have to boost to get anywhere and you can switch from 3D to 2D for some reason and you can throw your partner and you don't really know what that does and the game doesn't really give you any guidance as to how to do things or what even you're supposed to do besides pointing out that there are a lot of homing shots around.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Isn't that a general problem with the bosses rather than one exclusive with the Super fights?

You think my opinion would be different if the mechanics of the Super fights were really good? No, I don't think so. The last major climax boss of the story should be one that you're better equipped to deal with if you've been progressively getting better at the game from start to finish.

Edited August 27, 2012 by Grumpy Old Guy

[WarioBone]

It's kind of like if, at the end of Nuts n' Bolts, you were treated to a full-on classic Grunty fight with your full Banjo-Tooie moveset.

I can safely say that probably 75% of the people who played Generations had no idea what they were doing the first time they fought Time Eater.

[Jack / Joker]

I can safely say that probably 75% of the people who played Generations had no idea what they were doing the first time they fought Time Eater.

I still don't understand that boss fight at all.