So... What's so Bad About the Series' Current Direction?

[SlickEvan]

^ As of Losy World, they did.

But as far as my opinion, I agree that tension isn't being written well and overall story is just lacking. Perfect examples are SA2 and SA1. Sonic makes his wise crack before things got serious, Eggman shows him his golem, Sonic becomes "impressed" or "awed" by it. He no longer jokes but gets serious. The whole plot doesn't have to be super serious but at least make me think I'm gonna have a challenge ahead. I mean they made Sonic laugh at Eggmans ultimate life-long goal in Unleashed. Rather than be prepared for what the stage was, I thought it was going to be a joke because Sonics reaction rubbed off on me, him being the main character, cool factor after all. Sonics not even impressed or like surprised Eggman accomplished his goal, he blows it off and we chalk it up to "Hey he's just being Sonic afterall." No it doesn't work like that imo.

But gameplay wise I think were getting slightly closer to Adventure which was the whole bring momentum based platforming to 3D which is a big part of how Sonic was developed in the first place. It is also getting closer to being able to havr multiple characters back. And as long as their OBJECTIVES are get to the goal I'm happy. I mean SA2 Knuckles CONTROLLED awesome, it's just his objective overshadowed his true capable playability.

My 2:00 a.m. two cents

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

My only real issues that bug me with the games are how short they tend to be lately, and how Sonic Team can have a nasty tendency to overcompensate towards certain criticisms and go overboard with "fixing Sonic". Luckily, it's in the current state where I'm still having a blast with the franchise!

And now I'll hopefully have an even bigger blast, perhaps BOOM! of fun with Sonic Boom joining the picture.

[Chaos Incarnate]

Yeah, I'm curious as to how everyone feels about where the series is going at this point. How does everyone feel about the new split between the main series and Sonic Boom at the moment?

 

I'm sure a lot of people feel it's one of the most promising looking aspects of Sonic the Hedgehog in years. Personally, I'm not viewing it as the second coming of Sonic right now or anything, but bringing back playable characters is a step in the right direction and I'm glad it isn't directly interfering with the main series.

 

I'm really curious as to what Sonic Team is cooking up right now though. What about the rest of you, what are your thoughts on where Sonic is going as of right now?

[Nepenthe]

I'm mostly happy with the direction of Boom because it feels like a bunch of people who are still fond of Sonic Adventure and those aspects of the franchise geared up to make a cool game. It's got mostly everything I want from the franchise- alternate characters, high graphical fidelity, some really fast-paced speed sections, elaboration on lore, the feeling of a "big adventure"- albeit in an aesthetic package I don't think was necessary. The way combat will be elaborated on however will make or break the actual game, so my optimism remains cautious right now; not so much with the TV show since I simply like watching Sonic do wacky things. It looks to be great fun.

 

On the other hand, I'm still worried about the other half of the franchise because it's floating in a cloud of ambiguity. I'm confident they're going to continue with the same bland direction I've been deriding for awhile simply because changing things more towards what I would desire would be muscling in on Boom's entire point of existence, further causing brand confusion. Subsequently, I'm not confident Sonic Team can keep up with the pace of things after the way Lost World turned out, especially if Boom manages to turn out amazing in return. And then what does that mean for the main canon, the thing I've invested God knows how many hours and money into? Ultimately, I've got an underlying anxiousness about the old canon that's not going to be addressed until Sonic Team reveals what they're bringing to the table. For their sake I hope it's something ambitious.

[Kaze no Klonoa]

Sonic Team has been building up a bad reputation right now with making Sonic games no one can be pleased with. Seeing a new developer tackle the Sonic world seems fresh, and it won't be till later this year we will know whatever they're take on the Sonic universe is good or not.

 

On the other hand, I feel mixed feelings about the series' direction. Dimps is starting to wear down, from making successful games like Sonic Rush to ending up with Sonic 4 (Which isn't bad, but Dimps, COME ON! You can do better) and Sonic Lost World. Sonic Team on the other hand is different. They still make decent games, but that doesn't mean they made mistakes, and I mean a HELL lot of mistakes.

[GuyWithThePie]

Looking at the earlier posts of this topic... Lost World's hype train took a real big crash. Then it fell off the track, it exploded, and it was set alight on fire. It's a big shame.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

To be honest... I dont see anything wrong with the derection of the Sonic series. I think its a good way. Here are some reasons why

 

They focus more on Sonic. Sonic 2006 is a good game to me but I have a problem with them not focus on Sonic. But the games after that (except maybe for Sonic Rivals series) focus on Sonic. They focus more on Sonic has a hero and I really like that. They show who he really is, a selfess caring compassinate hero who hates to see people down.

 

They focus on gameplay and expand. Now you can do all new moves like use the wisps and such. They expand from flying drilling and all of that and they work well with the platforming. they geven give up simple games to show how amazing the gameplay can be.

 

They bring more characters slowly. Tails was playable in Sonic 4. 4 playable character in Sonic Boom.... yeah.

[LewiisD]

To be honest I thought sonic 06 was good, I didn't suffer any glitches apart from disappearing when I got hit and the story might of been a bit crap but the gameplay was A-ok to me.

They need to make a game with the boosting and the exploration with the adventure games which is why I think boom is a good direction.

[azoo]

The series doesn't take itself seriously enough, and doesn't take advantage of whatever integrity it can have. Lost World's writing is a distinctly large improvement of the two games before it, but even then the way the story is set up is still not nearly as satisfying as Unleashed, and even that game isn't some shining example on how to write a good story (it has it's moments, though).

 

And yes, at one point in this series' lifetime they took themselves too seriously, and those were during the worst games that the series had to offer. But those games took themselves too seriously because they didn't understand Sonic doesn't need to take itself too seriously, and well, because of that they were nearly bad at the default, without even getting to the rest of it.

 

And knowing how Sonic Team is, they thought solely about the concept and not the execution, and just tried cutting the idea of bigger stories out of the picture altogether. Good going! :v

[Aquaslash]

The only problem I have now, and it's really more of a nitpick, is that we're suddenly fixing what hasn't been broken.  Colors and Generations were solid games that refined the great potential that Unleashed had.  We were good to keep expanding on that and slowly start working other characters into the mix.  However, out of goddamn nowhere, we do something completely different, and limit it to a struggling console to boot.  I'd say Sonic Lost World's struggling sales can be pinned entirely on the Wii U basically being the Regigigas of game consoles.  Then this whole new universe happened, and it's clear that they're just throwing darts around now and seeing what sticks.

 

Granted, I have yet to beat Lost World (only just beat the female enemy) but one thing I do NOT have a problem with is the story direction.  I've made it no secret around these parts that the story of Unleashed and all things like it bored me to tears, and I can't imagine what the target audience feels about it.  Going full on action comedy was something that the series had needed to do for a good long while now, and I'm glad to see the writing team really embracing it.  Outsourcing the story and refreshing the vocal talent were the smartest decisions Sonic Team's made since restoring Super Sonic to main game play instead of that final boss garbage from the late 90s/early 2000s.  If they decide to keep on changing things, I hope that's at least one thing they keep constant.

[Adorkable]

Well, I try to not sound so negative when discussing Sonic but...

I dunno, I just don't like how the games are because of how different things now feel from the feeling I used to get while playing Sonic.

Before the whole voice actor switch and all (Jason's saga), Sonic felt like an awesome game that you could take seriously. Now, let me take you back to Unleashed, the entire world was at stake, and Sonic had to get sh*t done. It just felt like a game you could take more seriously than say...Lost World? I mean, cheesy puns and all that, just doesn't feel like Sonic. During Jason's Saga (sorry to keep bringing it up!), Sonic had clever jokes and knew when to take his mission seriously, now he just kids around a little bit, I dunno. I mean, I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't really feel like things are being taken seriously anymore. Sonic doesn't really have that cocky attitude and craving to be on the run, now it just seems like he wants to sit back and have drama with Tails and make bad puns about Eggman. I don't mind letting up on the serious situation every once in a good while, but I liked it a little better when Sonic was serious when the world was about to, you know, end. Back in the Adventure games (let's go with 2), Sonic had to not only save the world from the falling ARK, but defeat his new rival as well. Sonic had sh*t to get done, and he knew when it was time to put the jokes aside and get serious about the situation. Just doesn't really seem like Sonic would be sitting back telling jokes if the planet was about to explode, know what I mean? Sonic would have to hurry to the Chaos Emeralds so he could go Super Sonic and save the day as always. I hope this makes some sense. ^^"

[Letters From Sonic]

Sonic Lost World was not one of the best games ever & i didn't even like it that much it just didn't feel like Sonic at all, then Sonic Boom was announced with that blue armed scarf wearing Sonic Hedgehog and quite hideous Knuckles alongside him, it'll be interesting to see how that game and the TV series comes along I guess but the next main game for sonic needs to have a good storyline and more characters playable and an actual main vocal theme like other great games Sonic has.

[FriendBot]

Sonic Lost World was not one of the best games ever & i didn't even like it that much it just didn't feel like Sonic at all, then Sonic Boom was announced with that blue armed scarf wearing Sonic Hedgehog and quite hideous Knuckles alongside him, it'll be interesting to see how that game and the TV series comes along I guess but the next main game for sonic needs to have a good storyline and more characters playable and an actual main vocal theme like other great games Sonic has.

 

But Lost World had a good story though and if Lost World being slow is what you considered "not feeling like Sonic" is, then clearly you haven't played Labyrinth at all. You can't really expect a good story when you got writers who know little to nothing about the series they're writing about. I too would like another theme song but I don't mind Wonder World that much, that's probably the most Sonic-y orchestral theme song yet. I really doubt the next SEGA Sonic game is going to have multiple characters, so more solo Sonic goodness again. Why is a beefed up Knuckles considered "hideous"? I mean sure, it looks really odd and all but it's not that bad, it really an exaggeration when you think that's considered "hideous" when they were much more disgusting things Sonic has to offer, remember Black Doom from Shadow? 

[StaticMania]

But Lost World had a good story though and if Lost World being slow is what you considered "not feeling like Sonic" is, then clearly you haven't played Labyrinth at all.

Don't the spin-off games have some amount of slack to cut off for that...Labrynth is a puzzle game, usually a spin-off game does is own thing if its not actually trying to keep the fast pace nature of the series...all of the Sonic spin-offs before 2000 were usually slower paced games...with a few exceptions.

[FriendBot]

Handheld games during the 90s had a lack of effort in some. That's why a lot of people hate Blast, the Drift series and especially Labyrinth. Those games lacked a sense of effort and just felt very boring and empty in some of them and Labyrinth is boring overall and I just don't think it's a good game.

[The Pit of Mystic Cave]

I feel like a sense of direction is what most of the current games lack the most. I mean, they struck a right chord with the Unleashed day stages and then they knocked it out of the ball park with Colors and Generations (gameplay wise at least), but then they decide to drastically change the formula once more with Lost World and it threw many fans through a loop. There's a reason people believe that Colors and Generations were the best 3D Sonic games to be released since the Adventure series. It's because they both followed the formula put in place by Unleashed and it worked.

 

I would talk about Boom, but I'm giving it a bit more slack considering that it's a different developer, plus I recall SEGA mentioning that Sonic Team will continue to work on "canon Sonic". All I want is a return to the Unleashed formula. Come on Sonic team, just once more at least!

[FriendBot]

I'm actually liking the current direction Sonic going through, especially Lost World in some aspects. It was quite the breath of fresh air when Unleashed was out since it's just an action-adventure story and had great moments of characterization between Sonic and Chip, it might not explain a whole lot of things and the middle got a bit weak but this is probably in my top 10 favorite stories in Sonic games. Colors was alright in my opinion, it did have good characterization between Sonic and Tails but it was bombarded with so many unfunny jokes, those moments seem forgotten to me. Generations' story is nonexistent, it did have a few moments but the game seriously lacked a narrative. Lost World's story is probably somewhere in my top 5 favorite stories since it had hilarious moments between Sonic, Tails and Eggman and the Deadly Six are very interesting characters despite being a bit stereotypical but that's part of their charm. It really showed us different aspects of our beloved characters like the sadness of Sonic or the jealousy/anger of Tails, it was a bit sudden but it's completely justified. The ending may needed some work but the extra scene just wins it for me! XD

 

The gameplay during Unleashed to Generations is pretty good but it started to feel a bit boring when Generations came out, I mean what's so interesting about the levels when the design fills nothing more like obstacle courses? Granted yes, the many memorable events did came from these games and I too liked them but I prefer to actually play the game rather than looking at it. Unleashed really took out a good chunk of platforming and focused more on speed in the Daytime levels. Werehog was alright but either the levels are too long or there is too many of them, why can't there be a middle ground? The medal collecting in the game also drags it as well but the bosses are pretty cool to play except Dark Gaia in the HD version, it's the most cinematic Sonic boss fight but it's also the most annoying one as well due to using QTEs for the most part of the game. QTEs overall in this game, especially in the HD version, just downright suck. Colors did focused more on platforming but it felt more like traditional platforming than Sonic platforming, if you get what I'm saying, there was moments I dread because of how floaty Sonic is in this game like the ending of Planet Wisp Act 3. The Color Powers were a nice addition and it's great to have Super Sonic playable in stages again after a very long time. The bosses were alright but I do love using the Color Powers to finish off a boss, my favorite being Violet Void's finisher in Colors DS. Generations had really nice details to the levels but since I'm going so fast, I couldn't take the time to appreciate it and the motion blur doesn't help as well. Classic in the HD version didn't really play like he was in the classic games but the levels work well for him anyway. Dat overpowered Spindash! I enjoyed the Modern boss fights, especially Perfect Chaos and Silver, but I don't dig the Classic bosses, due to them being too easy, and the Time Eater for obvious reasons. The Challenge Acts are quite fun to play but there were a few that annoyed me but that's because I wanted to S Rank all of them. Speaking of Ranks, Generations was way too generous with you when it comes to S Ranks and Super Sonic wasn't as fun to play as in this game than in Colors. The Skills were a nice touch and the Collection Room was nice as well but I prefer Unleashed's unlockables.  

 

And it goes without saying that, all 3 games had wonderful soundtracks as well like most Sonic games have.

 

Lost World did have a bunch of gameplay styles like a Mach Speed level, Snowball level or a Sky Chase-esque level but these only take up one level. The bosses were a bit too easy due to the new Charged Homing Attack but the last fight with Zavok was creative to say the least. The new controls does take some time to adjust but once yo get it down, it controls pretty well. It's great that the levels are expansive but it lacks some memorability since they do feel a bit same-y with some levels. It's great that the game makes enemies more of a threat than just obstacles that gives you Boost energy and it's also nice that they spiced things up with the combat and it's cool they brought back the Bounce Attack. The parkour is a cool idea but the levels don't really make youmuse a whole lot and it sometimes can get in your way as well and the Color Powers aren't incorporated into the game as well but they're completely optional. The music for this game is great and I consider it the best Sonic soundtrack yet and I am completely disappointed in myself for not playing the game yet.

 

So yeah that's my thoughts on the current direction has some issues but there is more positives than negatives.

[Agie]

I didn't hate Lost World, but it wasn't a great game, either. That said, I don't want its gameplay style to go away. It has potential, but it needs a little more refining, especially where the level design is concerned.

[-blank-]

I'll just preface my thoughts with this statement; this series has potential. It can be a great series and there have been times when that potential has been reached. (Unleashed comes to mind for me).

 

 

But nowadays?

 

 

That potential has not been monopolized on. Especially in how the characters are utilized.

 

The way the past several years has taken most of the characters, save for Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot and has reduced them to little more than cheerleaders and the like? I'm sorry SEGA, but if you're not going to give them better roles in the stories at least, then why are they even still around? This is one of the main reasons why I hate Generations story as much as I do. Most of the characters in that game ended up in a state of living death courtesy of the Time Eater. Don't you think they would want to help take down the being responsible for what happened to them? I mean, it's not like they can't all fight. They worked together in SA2 and Heroes - they didn't leave everything to Sonic!

 

And even Unleashed is guilty of this. The whole planet has been split apart.... so why isn't GUN investigating? For all intents and purposes, we should have seen Shadow, Rouge, and Omega. Or perhaps the Chaotix. Are they not a detective agency? Wouldn't this have caught their attention? Especially since in the game itself you literally travel the globe - you'd think you'd run into more of the characters. Unless everyone save Tails and Amy all got sent to some strange alternate dimension when the world split, which I'm pretty sure did not happen.

 

I could call Lost World an improvement in this (Hey, watching tiny animals while Sonic rescues their friends is still doing more than just standing around doing nothing more than shouting 'That looks like a homing shot')... but not by much. Not by much at all.

[AzureHedgehog]

I don't think there's anything bad with it at all.

I'm cool with it, actually. That's what I like.