What DO the kids think?

[Phos]

I don't know what this means, but if it's liking all the Sonic games out there, "good quality" or not, then more power to them. They don't care about "glitches," "crummy story," or whatnot. As far as I know, they only want something fun to play, and that's that.

Now, I'm not around kids as much as I used to, but at Disney World, I talked to a rather young Sonic fan (about ten years old), and he loved the series and the games, including Unleashed and Black Knight.

Actually, They mostly talked about random movie licensed games.

[BakingBluePotatoe]

I think he is.......... no offence is meant, so...

The Mario of this generation.

Speaking ONLY in terms of recognisability. Got that?

[Leon K Fox]

I myself never see Sonic fans where I live, young or old. I met one once in Year 8 or Year 9, but that was it. The only Sonic fans I've met IRL are those I've arranged to see that I met online.

[batson]

I think he is.......... no offence is meant, so...

The Mario of this generation.

Speaking ONLY in terms of recognisability. Got that?

Wait, wait, you're saying Sonic is the Mario of this generation? No way dude, Mario is the Mario of this generation. "The Mario" as in "the big icon of video gaming and that one video game character that EVERYBODY recognizes, even people who haven't played a video game in their life". And Mario has been that guy to every generation ever since the early 80's.

[JezMM]

I can only speak from experience of my sister. She's 10 now, but I've let her try every new Sonic game I've got since around the time Shadow came out pretty much (so she was about 6 or so).

She likes the games and the characters, but has always found them kind of hard. She can only ever beat the first level or two on her own (if even that). My sister does like playing games, but it's still very much a casual hobby to her. I don't think her reaction times are quite up to scratch yet for Sonic.

She absoloutely adored watching through all the cut-scenes on Unleashed though. She finds the cut-scene where Eggman gets hit by a rock absoloutely hilarious.

The most fun she's had with a Sonic game is probably Sonic Adventure. We played through it together, I did all the levels and she did the adventure fields. Obviously there was no challenge involved for her, but she still enjoyed it.

I do often think Sonic games could benefit from an easy option. Frankly it actually surprises me that she still finds Sonic so hard. She's beaten (I think) up to the second Bowser stage on Mario Galaxy almost totally on her own.

[redmenace]

Have you tried playing Heroes with Team Rose? That's easy at least until halfway in.

Kids like Sonic as soon as they play it. I had a pesky kid (family friends) who said he didn't like Sonic and Glaxy was so much better. I asked him which games had he played for Sonic and he said none. So I kind of forced him to play one (Unleashed HD). Let's just say he sniveled his way to his father to buy a PS3 and Unleashed for him.

[Guest Sanic4K6]

Well I'm 13, I think the new ideas are dumb.

[Tombi]

Well I'm 13, I think the new ideas are dumb.

While it is nice that you acknowledge your youth and thus probably aren't one of the many rebellious 13 year olds who want to be treated as something they're not...we're talking even younger than 13 here.

When I first got a home console I was 7 or 8, but nowadays kids are almost expected to start playing video games at about age 4. With the kids being this young, they don't really give a care for any new ideas - because the ideas aren't even new to them in the first place. Like it's been mentioned in the topic before; at that age you just want something fun.

Of course, you're entitled to your opinion - but most kids just aren't bothered.

Have you tried playing Heroes with Team Rose? That's easy at least until halfway in.

Team Rose is great for accessing the special stages too. Honestly I don't know where I would be without them, although I wouldn't mind them being even easier if I'm honest. Final Fortress always seemed to kick my ass no matter what the team or what my age was at the time.

Edited July 4, 2009 by Tombi

[HelenBaby]

I work in Argos, and find its younger kids who tend to buy the Sonic games. I'm like "good taste, yo"

Edited July 17, 2009 by HelenBaby

[Cortez]

I have a 7 year old brother who I got into Sonic games when he was only 3. Hes single handedly beaten Sonic 2, Sonic 3, SA1, SA2, Heroes, Rush, SRA and Advance 1-3. He owns most of the other Sonic games but has yet to complete them. Interestingly Sonic 2 and SA2 are his favourite games whilst he has little interest for Heroes and Riders and he played BK for an hour before never touching it again =/. It goes without saying that Shadow is his favourite character though, despite my best efforts to convince him otherwise

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

It goes without saying that Shadow is his favourite character though, despite my best efforts to convince him otherwise

Hey, he may be your brother, but it's still his choice, don't force yours on him.

Geez, you end up having a brother like a character you don't and you can't live with that? That's shamefull.

Edited July 17, 2009 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Dreadknux]

I work in Argos, and find its younger kids who tend to buy the Sonic games. I'm like "good taste, yo"

Ack, Argos. I'm due to go there to work in an hour and a half myself. XP

But yeah, kids. Honestly, the last Sonic game I saw kids gets really excited about was Sonic Heroes. That says loads really, about the design that the team should really be going for. Boys who want realistic action, as someone said earlier in this thread, want the CODs and the Killzones and whatever - they're not going to be impressed with a game like Sonic 06 or Shadow the Hedgehog, because it's like Sonic's trying too hard to compare with these games.

I've seen the odd kid in GAME pick up Black Knight (before putting it down again) and I don't know about how well they've attached to Unleashed (if at all - seems like the only people who bought it were the teen/older dedicated fans), but yeah. Kids appreciate something more when it has its own identity - Heroes was the last Sonic game that really displayed the franchise's unique identity. It plays like crap today, yeah, and there are a few gripes, but it wasn't critically panned (80-90%ers) and it is, at least in Europe/UK, one of the bigger selling Sonic titles in the last ten years (barring Mario and Sonic, of course).

So yeah. I think kids want Sonic ala Sonic Heroes. Simple gameplay, funky levels with way-out-there ideas (jumping on turtles backs? WTF?) and little confusion (which Heroes did do in the really shitty story it had, but I don't think many kids really paid attention to the story).

I mean, despite all the cheesy crap, I can still sit down with Heroes and know exactly what I'm doing. I tried to further Jemnezmy's story in Sonic Unleashed the other day (needed to get to Spagonia's Temple) and got completely and utterly lost (despite already doing this a few months ago on my own copy), to the point where I gave up after half hour of circling the map. Sonic 06 and Shadow, well I couldn't even muster up the courage to play those again.

[Cortez]

Hey, he may be your brother, but it's still his choice, don't force yours on him.

Geez, you end up having a brother like a character you don't and you can't live with that? That's shamefull.

Considering his reasons for favouring Shadow are 'because he looks so cool with a gun on the front of the Shadow the Hedgehog box' I don't think theres anything 'shameful' about trying to teach a young child that just because something has gun, doesn't make it cool. Don't criticise me without knowing the entire situation . Unless of course you want to argue that teaching a seven year old that its perfectly acceptable to like something purely because violence is involved?

[Rusty Spy]

Considering his reasons for favouring Shadow are 'because he looks so cool with a gun on the front of the Shadow the Hedgehog box' I don't think theres anything 'shameful' about trying to teach a young child that just because something has gun, doesn't make it cool. Don't criticise me without knowing the entire situation . Unless of course you want to argue that teaching a seven year old that its perfectly acceptable to like something purely because violence is involved?

Eh, I can see that. Personally, I blame the FPS games.

Maybe you should try exposing him to more of Shadow's character from the other games, he might like that.

[edge.]

I know a whole lot about the Sonic franchise despite me being 14 3/4. I played just about all the home games and some of the handhelds. (Who cares about that tho.) My friends who range from 14 (me) to 19, most of them were exposed to Sonic through Sonic Adventure. Me and my two best friends, one who is 17 1/2, were exposed to Sonic at an early age, like the first four Sonic games we played LOL.

[Ferno]

So I'm at Walmart the other day, in the Games section. 'Unleashed demo's up on the Xbox, and I see a kid around the 8-9 age grab ahold of the controller and start to play. It was Windmill Isle act 2, and while he wasn't even boosting, the kid was all "Whoa, this is fast!!" He was bewildered by every little detail, as I noticed he kept making Sonic jump just to see him spin into a ball on screen. From then onwards, all he said was "wow" the whole way through, and don't even get me started on his reaction to the boost mode. *smiles warmly* It's simple stuff like this, a kid discovering Sonic for the first time, that gives 'ya that warm feeling; That feeling we ourselves got when discovering the Blue Blur for the first time. We didn't care about storylines or game mechanics, all we cared about was that there was a bizarre-looking blue hedgehog on screen who could run as fast as all hell, and had a cool attitude to boot.

I don't think Sonic's rep will be in any danger anytime soon, not when he still has the power to 'wow' todays kids like we were 'wowed' in our day.

[serpx]

I may be 13 but I know Almost EVERYTHING about Sonic games. I know what song they reference, where its from, ect. Little kids like Sonic, but I don't know if they would like the old games.

Everything? I doubt that -- there's a lot to the Sonic games. Browsing around SonicRetro made me realize this.

[edge.]

Everything? I doubt that -- there's a lot to the Sonic games. Browsing around SonicRetro made me realize this.

Co-sign on that.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Considering his reasons for favouring Shadow are 'because he looks so cool with a gun on the front of the Shadow the Hedgehog box' I don't think theres anything 'shameful' about trying to teach a young child that just because something has gun, doesn't make it cool.

When you say like that, it makes more sense. There's always something to be called badass for very simple stuff.

However, should you expose him what else Shadow is, and he still favors him, that's still his choice.

Don't criticise me without knowing the entire situation .

Hey, you have to tell me the entire situation first, or else I can help but assume things like I did.

Had you told me what you said above, I would said something completely different.

Unless of course you want to argue that teaching a seven year old that its perfectly acceptable to like something purely because violence is involved?

That's always going to be seven year old boys, you really can't stop that until they grow up more...

[Cortez]

*post*

Yeah I suppose, sorry for sounding so pissed off. My little brother has a habit of skipping the cutscenes though, he did so in SA2, SA, Heroes and Riders so I don't think he has any intention of judging a character based on personality. I have told him before that if you don't watch the cutscenes the story will make NO SENSE but alas, he does not care XD.

[Gamma V]

My 7-year-old nephew likes Sonic. He used to watch Sonic X on 4Kids TV, and I don't think he cares about the voices. He's also played a few games. His favorites are Tails for his flight and Blaze for her pyrokinesis.

[Silencer226]

A young kids perception of Sonic could be that the games are great, I myself was naive as a child and didn't really care about good or bad games, I was just happy to get a game. So I guess they like the games, my little cousins eems to love Sonic Unleashed a lot more than I did, he even knew every single word in the commercial ad.