Downloadable Content in Sonic Games

[Sonictrainer]

Throughout the 20 plus years of Sonic, there has been some pretty cool downloadable content that could be added to the games through different means.

 

Sonic Adventure: New Missions, Chao Black Market, and Holiday Decorations

In the past, there were different events for Sonic Adventure that could be downloaded the VMU. While some added challenges such as Time Attacks, unique Item Quests, and even a Chao Black Market, there were also Holiday Events such as the Halloween Party in Twinkle Park, where ads are posted all over Station Square and new decorations appear in Twinkle Park.

 

http://youtu.be/U4a9-OBBrdU

 

Unfortunately, most of these were one-time events, while others were exclusive to specific areas of the world. Also, they were never made available in their rereleases (except for the Chao Black Market).

 

Sonic Adventure 2: Character Themes, Alternate Costumes, and New Kart Race Tracks, Characters, and Vehicles

Sonic Adventure 2 also got some DLC such as character themes that change the background and sound clips in the Menus, new content for the Kart Races, and Halloween and Christmas designs for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Eggman, and Rouge in 2 Player Mode.

 

http://youtu.be/1ELA-I_9_Jk 

 

Some of the content was bought back in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog 2006: Very Hard Mode, Boss Attack, and Team Attack Amigo

There was downloadable content for Sonic 2006, one being a Challenge Mode, where you play the entire game as Tails, Blaze, and Omega.

 

Sonic Unleashed: Country Adventure Packs

Starting with Chun-nan, there were DLC Packs that added 3-5 new Day and 2-3 Night Acts to different Countries except for Eggmanland. While a few of the levels were brand new levels, others were “Hard Mode” versions of available levels.

 

 

Sonic Generations HD: Casino Night Zone DLC

This special preorder allows you to play an exclusive pinball minigame in the HD Version of Sonic Generations. Use Classic Sonic’s Spin Dash or Modern Sonic’s Boost to try to rack up as many points as you can.

 

 

Sonic Lost World: The Nightmare Zone, Yoshi’s Island Zone, and The Legend of Zelda Zone

Sonic’s most recent outing had 3 Crossover Levels as DLC: 1 which is a Boss Rush featuring characters from the NiGHTS series, a 2D level based on Yoshi’s Island, and a 3D level based on Hyrule Field and Dodongo’s Cavern from the Legend of Zelda series. The Nightmare Zone was announced to be available in the Deadly Six Bonus Edition of the game, while the other 2 were announced during a Nintendo Direct.

 

 

How do you feel about the past and recent DLC for Sonic games?

 

Would you like to see more of certain types of DLC in future Sonic games?

 

[FriendBot]

I liked the DLC Lost World had to offer and it was a good idea that it was free but the levels themselves were pretty alright. I don't mind DLC in Sonic games but if I want to pay for it, it better be worth the money unlike 06's Very Hard Mode DLC since it's just the regular levels except with more enemies.

[iDEATH]

On the one hand, I'm happy that Sega haven't gone down the road so many other companies have, of releasing tons of DLC the second a game is released. Pretty much everything they've released so far has been slight and easy enough to ignore if you're not a fan of DLC in general. The Lost Worlds stuff is probably the most interesting stuff they've released so far, though I can't really comment on it as I've never played it.

 

You also forgot the DX and Battle expansions for the rereleases of the Adventure games.....if that even counts.

 

All that said, I actually think the Sonic series has great possibilities in terms of DLC. Games like Generations could have had extra levels added from games not featured in the main game and pretty much all of the games could include extra characters or things like that. It could actually be a good way for Sega to see the potential of bringing back certain characters. Imagine how well a Nack character skin would have sold for example. 

[Celestia]

I wouldn't mind seeing more DLC in future games that's like Unleashed's and (sort of but not really) '06, at least in concept. Using assets already in the game but having new level design, and if it's some time after the game's come out, theoretically feedback from fans would perhaps have an effect on things. Maybe that's not really likely since communication since Sonic Team isn't exactly much of a thing, but it'd be nice to see.

 

As for SLW, the DLC was pretty cool, if simple.  The Zelda Zone is probably my favourite overall. The first area made me think a lot of Sonic Adventure which is a huge plus, and the second area was decent. All the secrets were pretty cool, and it was worth the wait IMO. More "fanservice DLC" in future games would be alright, I think. It'd be cool to see more SEGA-based zones, though I have limited knowledge on most SEGA franchises so some of it would fly over my head. Doesn't stop me from enjoying the ASR games!

 

But as for the issue of money and pricing? Eh, I'm okay with paying money for extra stuff, but y'know, make it worth it. I guess that goes without saying, though. XP

[ElectricAngel]

I've never really cared for DLC in Sonic games. Seeing as the Unleashed adventure packs and '06 packs were just pretty much the same levels but harder in difficulty, I didn't bother spending any money on them. The only DLC I ever paid for was the Generations pinball which I got dirt cheap during a Steam sale. 

 

I do think, however that the new DLC (Yoshi/Zelda) in Lost World is a great idea. It's free, and it gives those who played the game a reason to go back and play the game again. I believe that DLC should just be a little extra something to keep players interested in a game after completing it, in the way Lost World is doing it. 

 

I'm glad SEGA isn't going all out like other companies and releasing content meant to be a part of the game as DLC, but instead is actually building new content from the ground up. This is how I think DLC should be made. So I wouldn't mind having future DLC be like Lost World. And even if it's not free, I wouldn't mind spending around a buck or two on extra levels. 

[Milo]

I assume if Sonic Team had more time on their hands, we could be getting DLC on the likes of Sonic 06 and Unleashed (by that I mean new acts, new level layouts to existing, and new gameplay modes) if Sonic Team actually had the time to do so. But considering that they work on a biyearly schedule when it comes to making Sonic games (regardless whether it's the Unleashed side Sonic Team or the Storybook side of Sonic Team), they don't really have any time to truly flesh their DLC out into something meaningful because they immediately start work on the next Sonic game after the finish the recent one. That's why we're stuck with brief little time wasters only available with pre-orders or as free downloads as we've seen with Generations and Lost World. I also think that also explains why it took Lost World so long to get critical updates that make the game less frustrating to play (adding traditional controls for the Wisps and re-establishing the 100 rings = 1 life gameplay rule of Sonic games).

 

I'd like to assume if the two groups of Sonic Team were merged back into one group and Sega modified their schedule to release games every three years (with I assume a Dimps developed Sonic game and a different third party Sonic game each seeing a release within the three year gaps, operating on a similar development schedule), we'd not only see proper DLC content, but more polished Sonic games with a good amount of lasting appeal as well.

[Gabz Girl]

The DLC in Sonic 06 and Unleashed was nothing special; just a few new stages and stages with Hard Mode, which is why I never paid for it. However, I'm glad that SEGA/Sonic Team make their DLC from scratch unlike most developers out there. Lost World's DLC, while not amazing, had some really neat new stages based on Nintendo franchises. And they're all free! It would be great if we could see more of those in future Sonic games on WiI U.

 

What really surprised me is that Generations and ASRT, two games which absolutely deserved DLC got absolutely nothing. Oh sure one pre order bonus and some questionable PC-exclusive characters but is that really it? In Sonic Generations' case, it was just one of its many wasted potentials.

[-blank-]

What really surprised me is that Generations and ASRT, two games which absolutely deserved DLC got absolutely nothing.

 

I agree with Generations. I mean, in a game which revisits past stages, there should have been, well, more past stages. The likes of Hydrocity, Flying Battery, Green Forest, and Dragon Road among others would have been great to see and SEGA really should have capitalized on the potential Generations had when it came to DLC.

[Milo]

I agree with Generations. I mean, in a game which revisits past stages, there should have been, well, more past stages. The likes of Hydrocity, Flying Battery, Green Forest, and Dragon Road among others would have been great to see and SEGA really should have capitalized on the potential Generations had when it came to DLC.

 

I wager that a steady stream of remade levels would had extended Generations's replay value to the point they could had garnered extra development time for both Sonic Lost World as well as the eight-gen multiplatform Sonic game. At least three new zones from each era (two acts for both Sonics with missions) I'd like to assume would give them an extra year of development time alone (if just one title was in the works at the time).

[Junko]

The DLC in Sonic 06 and Unleashed was nothing special; just a few new stages and stages with Hard Mode, which is why I never paid for it. However, I'm glad that SEGA/Sonic Team make their DLC from scratch unlike most developers out there. Lost World's DLC, while not amazing, had some really neat new stages based on Nintendo franchises. And they're all free! It would be great if we could see more of those in future Sonic games on WiI U.

 

What really surprised me is that Generations and ASRT, two games which absolutely deserved DLC got absolutely nothing. Oh sure one pre order bonus and some questionable PC-exclusive characters but is that really it? In Sonic Generations' case, it was just one of its many wasted potentials.

I agree with Generations. I mean, in a game which revisits past stages, there should have been, well, more past stages. The likes of Hydrocity, Flying Battery, Green Forest, and Dragon Road among others would have been great to see and SEGA really should have capitalized on the potential Generations had when it came to DLC.

It just makes me even more sad about Gens, because it was a prime opportunity for Sega to squeeze us for what we were worth, we could've had multiple new stages released separately or like, full game packs, like I dunno, the "Sonic 3 DLC Pack" having all remade Sonic 3 levels, for I dunno, £5 or something like that. Generations life-cycle (bar the PC modding community) was so short...

[MegasonicZX]

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing more DLC like unleashed really, sure there are some hard mode stages (1 for each level I think) but after that are some levels that you would've never seen in the game and it really sucks that they aren't doing anything with it anymore since those are the type of DLC levels I really like from a series like this and I think even sonic team knows they could do more with these than they already have but just never have the time to.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I still think DLC characters is a good idea. They tried to program about 15 different characters and/or gameplay mechanics in 06, and that crashed and burned. If they were to release more characters after they made a game, however, it would be much better. Even if it's just more for Lost World, I wanna be able to play as Shadow and Knuckles.

[SuperBrandon]

Man I wish SEGA used more DLC in Sonic Generations for the 360/PS3 versions with extra levels such as Flying Battery Zone, Windmill Island, Savannah Citadel, Mushroom Hill Zone, Eggmanland, Sweet Mountain. Ah well I guess when I get a better laptop I shall pick up the PC version of Generations mainly because of the mods.

 

Personally believe that more DLC should be used in Sonic games. Hopefully in the 3DS version of Boom, we will get some Downloadable Content.

[Sonictrainer]

You also forgot the DX and Battle expansions for the rereleases of the Adventure games.....if that even counts.

 

I feel like that was DLC that should already been in the game. When DX and Battle came out for the Gamecube, we didn't have to buy the new added content, it was already available from the beginning.