[DELETED]

[Diogenes]

I am all for Marine coming back.

...y'know, it's funny. Eggman's been one of the most consistently good characters in the series. Most of the rest of the cast has sucked at one point or another. But in Blaze's universe, Nega sucks and everyone else is cool.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I'd definitely love to explore Blaze's dimension a helluva lot more.

Come to think of it, that Power of the Stars contained in the Jeweled Scepter could be an even more useful plot element in the main series.

[Faseeh]

How could Metal Sonic control in a new game? Obviously like Sonic, but maybe if you build up enough Ring or Chaos Drive Energy, he could do that BOOSH fiery burst attack from Sonic CD, kind of like a less OP Chaos Control. Maybe he could even be like Kirby and copy the abilities of the enemies he defeats, like if he destroyed a driller Badnik, he could be able to use the Drill from Sonic Colors? He has a lot of potential, and that's why I hate Episode Metal so much... there's also his Black Shield from SA2 that could be implemented somehow.

I really wish that Metal Sonic will be playable in some way like this. I too think he has potential and Episode Metal didn't do much. We could just do a nice light hearted plot you know with the story developing on both Eggman's and Sonic's, like SA2's.

[Multikaris]

Maybe Jet would work like Amy but even harder, as he jumps as high as Knuckles does? Jet would also have some kind of hawk dive attack. Does anyone else have any ideas for a playable Jet? I would like to play as Jet for a dark story campaign.

[Sega DogTagz]

Maybe Jet would work like Amy but even harder, as he jumps as high as Knuckles does? Jet would also have some kind of hawk dive attack. Does anyone else have any ideas for a playable Jet? I would like to play as Jet for a dark story campaign.

Any potential Jet stage should focus on him getting his grubby hands on something, and then getting the S#@t out of dodge.

You could give him a couple checkpoint missions (recover item A, return to base under the time limit --> recover item b...) and ramp up the security and traps on each pass, but I couldn't imagine him doing anything without his extreme gear.

Snowboard stages offer up other opportunities. Outside of 06, I have thoroughly enjoyed the Snowboard sections of Sonic's stages. If they had half a mind to, the devs could easily model swap in the green hawk and let him just take care of those sections.

[Sparky]

Here's an interesting one, what happens if they bring Marine back.

NOW, before you throw fruit at me, here me out on why I feel Marine should have a fighting chance to be brought out.

Reason 1: Marine has the chance to be an interesting character. Essentially, what we've gotten about Marine from Sonic Rush Adventure is that she's a young, Ship Mechanic with dreams of becoming a captain. What can we do to expand her personality you may ask. Well, simple, you play off what's existing. Play off the fact she's so Naive do to her young age, and have, well, pretty much anything she does builds or repairs ends in disaster. Heck, you can even have her her work under Tail's wing.(Tails, wing, tornado, get it?)

Reason 2: Marine has that stereotypical Australian accent, that, despite annoying the majority of people who have to have her yapping in your ear, can actually work in the case of a voice actor. By that, I mean you can giver her a rather charming voice that can null out, well, most of the accent, while still keeping that aspect of her personality.

Reason 3: Considering her and Blaze are meant to be considered the Sol Dimensions Tails and Sonic, There's always room for a Sonic Rush 3. Heck, considering they made Rush cannon in 06 (and if you count Water Palace in Generations as Canon) to bring Blaze in as a major character, I don't see why they can't bring Marine. Now, you may counter act this argument with "Oh, Marine's basically Cream and Tails combined, we don't need her!" and, sure, that's a good point, but think about my reasoning. Simply KEEP the personality, that although Naive about her mechanical skill, and really, really bossy, can flow together to make a separate personality unlike that of Cream.

Reason 4: Marine has built up potential that is never really, well, used in full. At the end of Rush Adventure, we see her fire, what appears to be a ball of water, Hydrokinetics, if you will. Now, you may say "Oh, but Sly, we don't need more Kinetic characters!" but, in MY opinion, 3 seems to be a perfect number. I mean, think about it. We have Blaze, who's Pyrokinetic, Fire, and Silver whose Psychokinetic, Light. We can add Marine to the mix, and get Hydrokinetic. Fire and water make steam, which is used to make power, or light, so, Blaze, Marine, and Silver can in fact form the perfect trio (granted, you'll have to do something creative with Silver, but I'm not talking about Silver.

Okay, NOW you can throw fruit at me in case you still don't feel Marine should be brought back.

Psychokinesis isn't light. Silver power is just moving stuff with his mind and a hint of electricity in it.

[Bright Eyes]

Hello everyone. I have a great idea how to implement Sonic's friends into the next Sonic games. I know what you are probably going to think: "We are always discussing Sonic's friends. Do we really need yet another thread about Sonic's chums?". Well that may be true but there is one thing that the majority of threads discussing Sonics' friends are victim to: not actually discussing how to implement Sonic's friends.

Look at this picture:

and also feast your eyes on this one:

I hope you are getting used to this gamestyle people because, like it or not, this is probably how Sonic is going to stay for a long time. SEGA have just got their mascot back on his feet with critical acclaim and public opinion. So, for this reason, it is best to discuss Sonic's friends in relation to this style of play. There is obviously no point bringing up how Sonic's friends functioned in the Adventure games because that gameplay is now outdated and will not be coming back. If you like it or not you have to face facts.

You will probably be thinking to yourself: "So if we are being realistic then why are we talking about the return of Sonic's friends. They have been removed from all games so why would they return now". I will urge you to reconsider what you are thinking. Sonic CD had the return of Tails, Episode: Metal had Metal Sonic (albeit terribly done) and Sonic 4: Episode 2 was marketed around the return of the cute fox (even though there was the incredible blunder that Tails wasn't playable in single-player). I think it stands perfectly to reason that Sonic's friends could return.

I think the first thing SEGA would realise is that they cannot force Sonic's friends on players. Like it or not, they are a controversial aspect of this game. SEGA has shown that they have tried to please the fans though: see the friends in Sonic Generations and Tails in Sonic 4: Episode 2. Both of these measures were clearly underwhelming. Fans want the characters to be playable and not to feature as an unsure gimmick. So what would be the perfect way for SEGA to implement them? I think the answer is so blindingly obvious it baffles me that SEGA have not done this yet. I will use Tails as an example since he is popular and is probably the most realistic character to become playable. Once you win the story mode and you meet the unlock requirements you get to play as Tails. He does not have a story mode and simply plays Sonic's levels. Of course to make him a bit different he would have his flight mechanic and can find hidden itemboxes (think of a kind of half-hearted attempt like Knuckles in Sonic 2). To make him plausible for 3D he gets the homing attack (as he did in Sonic Rivals) but he does not have the Boost (to counterbalance his flight and to make Sonic the better character: Sonic needs the limelight!). This way Sonic fans would finally shut up about playable characters and the critics would not be unhappy.

Now you are probably thinking: "This is a nice idea but probably unrealistic. I mean, wouldn't that take a lot of developer time and effort." Well I would disagree with that. Firstly, Sonic Generations had new models for a lot of characters and this is much more time consuming than creating animations for playable characters. Secondly, look at Mario Galaxy. Luigi is only playable after 100% completion of the game and he is a fully playable character. This would be a great idea and, as well as letting us play as a realistic amount of characters, it would also improve the replay value. The length of the game would not seem as bad if there were unique characters to roam about with.

I think this would be the perfect and realistic solution. Give me your feedback and thoughts.

Edited October 29, 2012 by Bright Eyes

[Wentos]

So basically like Sonic CD 2011?

[Bright Eyes]

So basically like Sonic CD 2011?

Hey, that's not a bad analogy. Yes.

[Mr. Taxi]

It would be great to implement characters like that in terms of gameplay. Speaking of general presentation, I fail to see a coherent reason for them to be there. It's a little bit of underuse to put them to acton just to shut people up. They have the charisma and the potential, being fully able to compliment Sonic's universe.

I wouldn't necessarily request a story mode, but I do want them to progress with the player. Think of newcomers - they finish the game and suddenly they face other characters that are... just there... and there is no possibility whatsoever for the newcomer to develop any kind of attachment with the character. A sense of progression with the character is needed in order not to alienate any player - even storywise.

[Bright Eyes]

It would be great to implement characters like that in terms of gameplay. Speaking of general presentation, I fail to see a coherent reason for them to be there. It's a little bit of underuse to put them to acton just to shut people up. They have the charisma and the potential, being fully able to compliment Sonic's universe.

I wouldn't necessarily request a story mode, but I do want them to progress with the player. Think of newcomers - they finish the game and suddenly they face other characters that are... just there... and there is no possibility whatsoever for the newcomer to develop any kind of attachment with the character. A sense of progression with the character is needed in order not to alienate any player - even storywise.

Yeah, sorry I wasn't clear on this and forgot to mention it.

I used the example of Tails because he is likely to feature in the story mode. So you would know who he is because he is an important character in the story mode. (Like Sonic Colours for example).

And when you win the game newcomers would think "hey cool, this story character is an unlockable character now!".

[Crash]

Maybe characters that are just like Sonic in terms of design (Shadow, Amy, Metal Sonic.), could be used.

[TheOcelot]

As long as the unlockable character is not just a re-skin of Sonic (like Metal Sonic was in Sonic 4 Ep2), then yes I think this is a very good idea.

It is important that the character brings something new to the game. To use your example: Tails being unlockable in Sonic CD was a very good idea, because that game is all about exploration, and exploring every inch of those zones is not easy. Being a fox that can fly and swim, you can explore much easier and discover secrets that you may have missed when playing as Sonic. Tails effectively enhanced the Sonic CD experience. So future games should have unlockable characters, but unless they add something to the gameplay, there isn't much point.

Edited October 29, 2012 by NightwingFox

[Sparky]

One thing I hate is how most people keep saying "Only Shadow, Blaze and Metal Sonic" are able to use the modern gameplay style.

If everyone was able to Spin Dash and Homing Attack, then shouldn't they all be able to Boost, since it's like the new Spin Dash?

If I were to implement the characters into the Modern style, I'd give them all the boost. The rest of their moves would be unique, but still match up with Sonic's skill set a little, or counter it. Like: While Sonic slides, Shadow could throw a Chaos Spear, Tails could throw his Dummy Rings, and Knuckles could use his Screwdriver attack. While Sonic spin kicks, Tails could use his Tail Swipe, Knuckles could punch, Amy could Hammer Spin, etc. And While Sonic Stomps: Shadow could use his Chaos Spear, Tails could drop his Dummy Rings, Knuckles could use his Drill attack/Ground Shaker, and Silver could use his Psycho Shock.

[Shawshank Redemption]

I was daydreaming the other day about how the 3D games should implement Tails or Knuckles and had roughly these thoughts:

The perfect way to open up the level design for exploration with these extra characters would be to have special high up sections of level off to the side of the main path where Tails or Knuckles can reach.

Those sections would be designed specifically for Tails/Knuckles while the main path is of course built around Sonic's strengths. I would let Tails use boost meter to speed up quickly while flying and even allow you to fly boost over to small islands near the main path. If you play as Sonic there would be invisible walls there so you don't fall to your death!

Knuckles would have a similar glide boost that kept him level and be able to break rocks to unlock underground paths only available to him.

Other than co-op play, I think having the levels designed for multiple playthroughs as different characters in the way I described would be the most fun thing Sega could do with 3D Sonic.

Edited October 29, 2012 by Ball Hog Badnik

[SilJeff]

They should make the characters like they did in the genesis days: play like Sonic, with some ability differences.

And if they need extra time to make them work well, then (I don't want to sound like a supporter of what EA likes to do, but I will say this anyways) why not give us a Sonic game with a couple of Playable Characters and then later on come out with an expansion pack for the game that gives you quite a few other playable characters.

Like, have the next Sonic game feature (along with Sonic) the "easy" alt. characters to implement (the usual: Shadow, Amy, Metal Sonic), but later on, after they have to time to perfect other ones like Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, etc., release an expansion pack, either as DLC, or just an update for the game, that gives you the option to use the other characters.

This expansion pack would be like S&K in 1994, but without giving completely new levels. ALL the levels and character specific pathways would already be there, but you won't be able to go through these special pathways without this expansion pack (like how you can't go through certain areas of S3 without Knuckles

Edited October 29, 2012 by Mr.Snarf

[LATER BUDDY]

Big Post.

Merged with this existing topic about other characters and speculation and whatnot. Figured it'd eventually run into the same type of discussion that happens in this topic, so yay, married and whatnot.

[Diogenes]

I hope you are getting used to this gamestyle people because, like it or not, this is probably how Sonic is going to stay for a long time.

[Kuzu]

I notice it's both a blessing, and a curse that all of the characters play differently; It's a blessing because it gives each character their own unique skills and interesting take on the gameplay. It's a curse because those abilities generally are slower-paced, and miss the point of Sonic like gameplay completely.

So it basically means there needs to be a way for the characters to take advantage of their abilities, without the need of genre roulette or making them complete reskins of Sonic. At this point it'd help immensely if: A. The current gameplay wasn't so dominated by the speed element that it could allow the use of other abilities. B. If the character's abilities weren't so focused on things unSonic like(Shadow's Chaos Abilities and Silver's Psychokinesis more often feel more appropriate in a beat'em up action title)

[Shawshank Redemption]

You're taking out the boost, and adding in what I would assume is relatively slow flight. This means he wouldn't have the speed that people want out of modern Sonic games, and instead has slow exploratory elements (yes, even if his goal is still to get to the end, that's what his flight adds to the game). This isn't going to work. This is basically what '06 tried to do with Tails, except now that we're in the boost era there's an even larger divide between his gameplay and Sonic's.

And frankly I think a character with no boost wouldn't be any fun to play in a modern Sonic level anyway. You'd end up plodding through long sections since you don't have boosting speeds. And reaction-based obstacles pretty much become trivial when you're not rushing towards them at 300 MPH.

That's why I suggested a page back to give Tails his own special flight-based boost and knuckles a glide-based one. Just give Tails more control over his height while boosting.

Those characters rely on flight powers in the 2d games, might as well just enhance those same powers with a boost that hovers them quickly over the ground (unless you jump up for more air-time) instead of giving them the same generic boost Sonic gets or none at all.

Edited October 29, 2012 by Ball Hog Badnik

[Kuzu]

That's why I suggested a page back to give Tails his own special flight-based boost and knuckles a glide-based one. Just give Tails more control over his height while boosting.

Those characters rely on flight powers in the 2d games, might as well just enhance those same powers with a boost that hovers them quickly over the ground (unless you jump up for more air-time) instead of giving them the same generic boost Sonic gets or none at all.

That still sounds incredibly game breaking.

[Sparky]

That's why I suggested a page back to give Tails his own special flight-based boost and knuckles a glide-based one. Just give Tails more control over his height while boosting.

Those characters rely on flight powers in the 2d games, might as well just enhance those same powers with a boost that hovers them quickly over the ground (unless you jump up for more air-time) instead of giving them the same generic boost Sonic gets or none at all.

I'd rather Knuckles doesn't automatically glide when you boost on the ground, leave the flying off the ground when boosting to Tails. If anything, Knuckles could do a Drill thing forward and then continue boosting.

[Shawshank Redemption]

I'd rather Knuckles doesn't automatically glide when you boost on the ground, leave the flying off the ground when boosting to Tails. If anything, Knuckles could do a Drill thing forward and then continue boosting.

Yeah, Knucks could have a spinning drill boost on the ground and a regular glide boost in mid-air. if he glides and then gets close to the ground he goes back to doing the drill boost.

As far as it being gamebreaking, only if it isn't programmed well and glitches the game.

If it just makes the game a little easier, who cares, it's a single-player game so it doesn't matter much.

Edited October 29, 2012 by Ball Hog Badnik

[Diogenes]

As far as it being gamebreaking, only if it isn't programmed well and glitches the game.

If it just makes the game a little easier, who cares, it's a single-player game so it doesn't matter much.

Because games usually require a certain amount of challenge to be interesting. And I say this as a guy who doesn't even like super-hard games. If you can simply fly over an obstacle, it's as if it wasn't there at all. And when you can do that to large swaths of the level, you are essentially cutting out large swaths of the game. Balance isn't just a multiplayer thing, or a matter of player vs enemy, or a problem only when it's too hard; it's something that should be considered at every level, to give the player something solid to apply the mechanics of the game to.

[SHAD-DX]

Ok so if we got a Shadow 2 what addons would you want? I think if Shadow moved like Sonic from Sonic Generations and had all his weapons we'd have a winner. Bring back the 2P where player 2 can control another character for each mission if they want. All Sonic games after Sonic the Hedgehog on Xbox 360 had only Sonic. That sucked.