On the Psychological Sonic Drought of 2012

[Tani Coyote]

Exactly why does it feel like we are so starved for a new title?

It has been less than a year since a big console title, and only two years since a main console title. We got plenty of side games in between the big ones, with Episode II between Generations and Transformed, Black Knight and All Stars Racing between Unleashed and Colors. There are countless examples of prior years as well.

So, I'm curious as to fan theories on this: why do so many of us feel so starved of a title? We've been given plenty of side titles to tide us over, with Transformed being a fairly large project rather than a small one. We've gone two or three years between the main titles before as well, so why does it feel like we're deprived?

 

Is it a consequence of having four plot driven games between 2008 and 2011, or something else? Are we so used to early teasers or trailers that we feel left out of the loop? What are your thoughts?

[Semi-colon e]

I think it's partly because Sonic 4 and Generations have both relied entirely on nostalgia. People are keen to see something new now. I thought Generations was a grand 20th anniversary title and a love letter to the series but I'm really interested to see what they come up with now.

[Your Vest Friend]

Because people are apparently really impatient. 

[Faseeh]

I think it's partly because Sonic 4 and Generations have both relied entirely on nostalgia. People are keen to see something new now. I thought Generations was a grand 20th anniversary title and a love letter to the series but I'm really interested to see what they come up with now.

You really can't put it across simpler than that.

It's like you might love bread a lot but if you keep eating it everyday, you're gonna start to hate it. Sorta like that with us and nostalgia at this point of time.

When you start 'hate' nostalgia, you want something refreshing and new. If you hate bread, you can easily move on to something like cereal. That's not the case here as we just have to wait for the next game, we can't do much about it.

That's why we all are desperate/starved.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Faseeh

[iDEATH]

The last three releases have been spin offs, Transformed, Jump and Dash and two of them are only good for phone gamers.

 

The game before that was basically a greatest hits compilation (albeit a fun one), so no, we've not exactly been starved for new releases but we have been starved for a new game in the series. Flawed as the games are in terms of story, we want to play the story and see what sonic does next. Spin offs simply don't sate that desire.

[Dr. Crusher]

Impatience.

 

Really. That's it. Even Sonic himself would be telling us to calm the fuck down.

[SchemingMinor]

I think people want something among the lines of a new Adventure game that actually has quality due to the progress in gaming technology. Count me as odd and bitter, but I really want to play as Robotnik again and not always in mechs either.

[Johnny Boy]

Impatience.

Really. That's it. Even Sonic himself would be telling us to calm the fuck down.

To be fair, Sonic has shown on numerous occasions that he can be very impatient.

But seriously though, most fans I've seen have been acting like its the end of the world because of this drought.

[ArtFenix]

Is it a consequence of having four plot driven games between 2008 and 2011

Yes. That is one of two reasons in my opinion. Ths stories became total rubbish after Black knight. The other reason is overall shortness of games and lack of bonus content.

You can also count other characters' significance to anything games-related.

 

 

Fans keep talking about Sonic mythos which were introduced with Sonic 2 (from classic games) and Sonic adventure (from modern games) to this very day. There is no more such interesting mythos to discuss because in newer games the stories don't really care about that kind of stuff. This and lack of character development and just making the characters behave not like themselves or just like total idiots or clowns.

 

There really is nothing to discuss about modern games because it's just Solo-Sonica boost to win gameplay. I'm exaggerating, I know, but it's pretty much what I think. Now it's really just about that. Nothing more.

 

 

Those are the reasons why the fans become tired and bored of new games so quickly that they start demanding new games.

Edited March 19, 2013 by ArtFenix

[Chaos Warp]

There is no drought, simple as that. We got Sonic 4 Ep 2 and Transformed in 2012, two spinoffs, and this year we already got Sonic Dash. Maybe for Sonic it might seem like a drought but Sonic still puts out more in less time then most other game franchises, and I actually think it would benefit the quality of the games to slow down some more. 

Edited March 19, 2013 by Generations (Chaos Warp)

[Dr. Crusher]

To be fair, Sonic has shown on numerous occasions that he can be very impatient.

 

I know.

 

[Gabz Girl]

Because unlike previous years, we would've heard something about a new game by now, whether it's a spin off or whatever. Now, instead of revealing every single detail of the game, SEGA has kept things very secret indeed which is unlike them!

 

I'm patient enough, but I don't understand why we still haven't heard anything with April being just around the corner. =S

[sonfan1984]

 This and lack of character development and just making the characters behave not like themselves or just like total idiots or clowns.

 

And they weren't acting like themselves and like total idiots or clowns before? Which is probably one of the reasons why people outside the fanbase can't seem to stand anybody else because of how poorly Sega treated the other characters during the years.

Edited March 19, 2013 by sonfan1984

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

None of the current games have had anything in the way of general development, true conflict, thick enough storylines, character interaction, or true threats. They have been more on the mario rerelease level(NSMB) than true new games, they need more conflict, and more difficulty, and to actualy keep us busy, then we will be out of the Drought of Challenging Sonic games, not nessecarily sonic games in general

[JezMM]

Yeah it's a pretty bad drought.

 

 

But some of us are into Half-Life, y'know.

[ArtFenix]

And they weren't acting like themselves and like total idiots or clowns before? Which is probably one of the reasons why people outside the fanbase can't seem to stand anybody else because of how poorly Sega treated the other characters during the years.

Let's see. The following is my opinion only.

 

Amy

She's pretty good in Sa

alright in Sa2.

OK in Heroes.

meh in Shadow

mix of good/annoying/bad in Sonic 06

good in Unleashed

very annoying in Generations

pretty good in Riders and Zero gravity

don't remember Free riders..

mix of everything in Chronicles

 

 

Knuckles

Great in S3&K

awesome in Sa

awesome in Sa2

stupid in Heroes

stupid in Shth

awful in S06

awful in Generations

mix of alright/stupid in Riders and ZG

great in Chronicles

 

Shadow

Awesom in Sa2

Pretty good in Heroes

awkward/bad in Shth

pretty good in S06

Ok in Chronicles

Ok in Free riders

 

 

Tails

Awesome in Sa

awesome in Sa2

smart but not as awesome as in the adventures in Heroes

don't remember how he was in Shth

meh in S06

a bit better in Unleashed

very good in Colors

shallow in Generations

Great in Riders and good in ZG

 

 

Etc.

 

 

As you can see, I think that Knuckles was stupid in most games after Sa2 but other characters are either nonexistent/have too few lines or annoying as hell like Amy. That happens when you make a story barebones and fill what is left of it with stupid kindergarten jokes about trousers in salat and BBBE or facepalm Sonic's friends (Amy again and Knuckles being hit like a whimp in SG).

 

 

At least if the games still had stories which we could care about, there could be a chance of redeeming characters but as long as we have stories like in last two games, I don't see any chance of developing and improving existing cast aside from Sonic and Tails.

Edited March 19, 2013 by ArtFenix

[Barry the Nomad]

There is some good stuff coming, I'm sure of it.

[DarkLight]

@ArtFenix: And you need to repeat yourself, why?

 

 

We get it. You don't like Modern games. Stop thinking we're all too retarded to remember.

Edited March 19, 2013 by DarkLight

[Kuzu]

Sonic fans should probably find new interests .

[Dr. Crusher]

There is some good stuff coming, I'm sure of it.

 

If anything, surely the fact that they are spending time on whatever it is means at the very least that they've learned from 06, right?

[DarkLight]

I'll just bet even if we get an announcement soon, like a teaser trailer or something, most are just to bitch or nitpick about something.

 

And I'll be laughing so hard, I'll puncture a lung.

 

A funny place, the Sonic fanbase is.

[Nepenthe]

To me, it's a mix of entitlement and Sega actually doing their job of keeping things under wraps. That's it. No concrete news about the next big boxed game (which is what people want, not spin-offs or iOS games) means people who expect such news every year are going to have a problem with the silence, which generally manifests in taking every potential clue and rumor to extreme lengths and thus making the perceived wait that much longer.

[ArtFenix]

@ArtFenix: And you need to repeat yourself, why?

 

 

We get it. You don't like Modern games. Stop thinking we're all too retarded to remember.

Oh yeah keep giving "likes" to something that has little to do with what I said. Because repeating yourself about some weird stuff I didn't say is worth a million of likes.

 

I like modern games. I like a lot of things in the games but some elements were abandoned when they pretty much rebooted the series with Unleashed. And seeing the direction the series is going in, I can't imagine how they would care about the characters again any time soon. And if you can at least agree with me about higher chance of that happening if the games had better stories and more balanced tone then what the hell are you arguing about and what is the point in continuing discussing how a character "X" is ruined forever when the game series is clearly going in the direction where the characters will be even more dumbed down or axed comletely?

 

Yeah it's like in that other topic

""DId Shadow die in Sa2"

The answer is damn simple: NO.

Edited March 19, 2013 by ArtFenix

[Kuzu]

I gotta give it to Sega tho, it's nice to know they're actually doing their job for a change and keeping things hidden. We've been having far too many game leaks since Unleashed.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Ragna the Bloodedge

[azoo]

To be honest I'm getting slightly more hopeful that the next Sonic game will be a bigger deal with more overall effort in it, like Unleashed. After sitting on the thought for a while I'm just gonna guess that Colors and Generations were the weaker games regarding immersion and storyline because of how they were being worked on nearly simultaneously for a while, in a year apart of each, no less. I really just hope it delivers me more content and incentive to keep playing this time.

 

As for the inevitable S4E3 or whatever, I couldn't care less. 2automated4me.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Azookara