What if Nintendo developed a Sonic game?

[Willsy]

This is actually something that a few of us brought up on Skype, and it's rather an interesting subject. Nintendo are well known for the amount of quality and polish they put behind their software, something (that could be argued) that Sonic is in desperate need of.

What would a Nintendo developed Sonic be like? I know a lot of people might say Lost World, but I doubt that would be the case since Nintendo had no involvement or say in the development.

I think maybe Sonic could handle like vehicles did in F-Zero, with some speed focused stages having level design akin to that.

It is certainly something interesting to think about though, Nintendo and SEGA are two totally different companies with two totally different styles of development. I would definitely be up for a Nintendo developed Sonic game.

[Chaos Incarnate]

Don't know, don't even really care who would make a Sonic game at this point, especially after losing faith in Big Red Button.

 

As long as Sonic still has his own identity without becoming too Mario-esque, then maybe I would give it a shot. A lot of people were complaining about Sonic:Lost World in that regard, despite forgetting the fact Sonic Team were still the ones developing it.

[Willsy]

I don't think identity would be a problem actually. Nintendo have innovated their franchises quite a bit over the years but have still kept them linked to their roots somehow.

The thing is though I can't recall one occasion where Nintendo developed a title for a third party character, not including Smash which just kind of has Sonic/Solid Snake/Megaman/Pac as guests. They've formed a relationship with SEGA though, so maybe they would be open to developing a game?

[SlickEvan]

"Loosing Faith in Big Red Button" D:

 

lol, Anyways. I think it'd take lots of notes from Mario, not just because "it's Nintendo" but because as a developer after awhile you gain your own style and preferences, so when taking the helm of a new project it's hard to keep your own idea from flowing into it. So maybe they could or they couldn't but I do feel it'd take a couple of notes from Mario. It might even revert to 2D (Well, 2.5D) 

 

I don't know really, though.

[Solkia]

It would be shit because the IP belongs to Sonic Team and there's no way in hell they'd give an outsourced game creative freedom.

 

Unless Sonic Team no longer holds the IP, it won't make a difference who develops it because Sonic Team will still be in control.

[SlickEvan]

It would be shit because the IP belongs to Sonic Team and there's no way in hell they'd give an outsourced game creative freedom.

 

Unless Sonic Team no longer holds the IP, it won't make a difference who develops it because Sonic Team will still be in control.

 

Sonic Boom?

[Solkia]

Sonic Boom is the game that lead me to this conclusion.

 

Everything about Boom looks like shit, and it's once again all the fault of Sonic Team. But that's off topic and I'm so spent on talking about Boom that I can't be arsed to argue this further.

[Diogenes]

It's a pretty vague question, really. I do think that, if they really did commit to making a Sonic game, they'd work on making it something unique. In spite of people's complaints about the NSMB games, I feel like Nintendo aren't the type to put out games just for the sake of having games out there. If they're going to do something, it's not going to be something that's already been done.

 

Whether that ends up being what people want is totally up in the air though.

[Willsy]

Doesn't the IP belong to SEGA ultimately? If SEGA said "right, Nintendo get full control on a Sonic project" then there's not much Sonic Team could do to intervene, if not anything. Sonic Team is just the developer, SEGA owns the property.

[FourCartridge]

I... Would not be up for it. As you have said earlier, the two companies have different style of development and such, and much of what makes Sonic, well Sonic, would probally disappear. And as an aside, why Nintendo, and not say, Sony or Microsoft? The other members of the big three also have pretty good QC, even if they are in genres this board is not interested in. But even so with those two, my point still stands.

 

I remember reading somewhere that BRB wanted to make Sonic a lizard. That alone killed any faith I had in other devs taking over, because I'm pretty sure the others wouldn't be able to resist such drastic changes.

[sonfan1984]

I think BRB said that wanted to give Sonic pants and change his fur color, etc and that's when SEGA or Sonic Team intervene and told them no.

[Sonicstitch]

Not so shore that wood be a good thing.
Although Sega and Sonic teem have been working with Nintendo.
They need to have a separation between Sonic and Mario.
Sega needs to keep doing what nintendon't.
Or at lest what nintenwon't.
Even if its on a Nintendo console.
And Sonic needs to be better than Mario.
Nintendo can't do what nintendon't.
 And they can't make Sonic better than Mario.

[SlickEvan]

I think BRB said that wanted to give Sonic pants and change his fur color, etc and that's when SEGA or Sonic Team intervene and told them no.

And thus, all my defense of Boom became a saggy fry that now stands limp, that no one wants to eat... welp 

[Diogenes]

I... Would not be up for it. As you have said earlier, the two companies have different style of development and such, and much of what makes Sonic, well Sonic, would probally disappear.

Personally I feel it already has, even with Sonic in Sega's hands.

[WarioBone]

Well, considering that Nintendo is a company full several different dev teams (and smaller companies with their own dev teams) and isn't a single person, I'm going to assume that you mean "What if the people who made Super Mario Galaxy made a Sonic game?".

 

It would probably be Lost World minus the suck.

 

Hell, I'd have to say that the Galaxy team probably would've had enough discretion to not shamelessly rip off their own game, so it would probably be its own game entirely.

[Spooky Mulder]

It would be a sidescroller and Sonic would be inexplicably made of yarn.

But really I can't imagine Nintendo actually producing a Sonic game. Nintendo is a big company with a lot of studios and it's practically impossible to say what the game would be like if we don't know which studio or group would develop it. A Sonic game from one of the EAD groups would look very different than a game from Retro.

[Stritix]

With Sonic Lost World, Sonic went full out Mario in attempt to gain Mario fans according to Iizuka. Would Nintendo keep Sonic in that direction or would they do something more original with the series? If they go with the latter, then I'd be up for it.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Sonic Boom is the game that lead me to this conclusion.

 

Everything about Boom looks like shit, and it's once again all the fault of Sonic Team. But that's off topic and I'm so spent on talking about Boom that I can't be arsed to argue this further.

 

What a beautiful statement, considering all we've seen that they've done so far was "why the fuck would you draw this".

[Mr Loopone]

Well it really does depend on the situation whether Nintendo gets full control of making a Sonic game, having some control however Sega is still involved or Sonic Team breathing down the throats of Nintendo. Considering that the Mario & Sonic games bypass Sonic Team since the games are developed by Sega Sports Japan and any involvement would be approving the character models meaning that if it has to Sega can override Sonic Team but this doesn't happen often especially the Adventure era onwards where there were only perhaps a couple of games that had little involvement of Sonic Team. This is a problem since Nintendo would prefer the first option and Sonic Team would prefer the 3rd option, the second option would have to go through various meetings and possible conflicts. (It could be a reason why so far Mario & Sonic have only ended up in Smash Bros and the Olympics)

 

If somehow Nintendo gets full control, it still depends on the studio involved due to that Nintendo has various studios each with their different styles and whether their design can match with Sonic since Sega and Nintendo are two different companies with different ways of handling games (e.g. Sega would rather rush a game out while Nintendo unless have to can take their time to get it right). If it is handled by the New Super Mario Bros. team and handled by the same fashion then it would be a 2D platform game classic style with various badniks imatating the classic games (sort of like Sonic 4 but handled better). Retro would do something similar with a possiblity of new enemies or a 1st person Sonic game. Similar to Feel Good where it would either use a different graphical style like spikey or an animation style like Wario Land: The Shake Dimension. HAL might be similar too but usually keep a graphical style. Nintendo also has Arzest in their disposal who have the creator of Sonic (Naoto Oshima) so they can also make a Sonic game and if Nintendo respects their creators (that they sometimes do) then he can go back to make the Sonic game he always wanted to do but could end up like another take at Sonic CD. Thinking about it, many divisions of Nintendo first and second party can make a 2D platformer and perhaps handle the series well. When it comes to 3D platformers, it gets tougher however there is EAD who do the 3D Mario series. The problem would be to make a Sonic game that can fit into 3D very well with their style that can take years of figuring out.

 

Sometimes though Nintendo likes to do something unusual so one of their ideas could be a Sonic rolling game (like Marble Madness but at a 1st or 3rd person view) or something that is more hedgehog like that is completely different to Sega's style.

 

Personally it could go both ways, it could be a faithful take on the series and pleases both some fans and game players who aren't fans but like quality games or it could be completely different that might be better or worse.

[MamboCat]

I reckon bar people like Taxman and Stealth; and they already had a lot of material to work on, no-one seems to know what to do with Sonic. Hence the style of the games flip-flopping around ever since SA1/2.

 

Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but with this approach there will always be someone who doesn't like the direction the game has taken.

[Autosaver]

Sonic Maker for Wii U.

 

 

yes yes yes yes yes

[Frogging101]

I remember reading somewhere that BRB wanted to make Sonic a lizard. That alone killed any faith I had in other devs taking over, because I'm pretty sure the others wouldn't be able to resist such drastic changes.

Where did you read this? 0.o

[FourCartridge]

Where did you read this? 0.o

 

Found it.

 

 

 

Early on, when we had our first review of all the crazy things we wanted to try, Iizuka-san came down to Los Angeles and looked through all the different concepts," Rafei said. "I felt sorry for the guy because sometimes he couldn't actually look at the screen ... it was too traumatic seeing all the crazy stuff we wanted to do."

 

Rafei said the team experimented with different colors, as well as adding features like fur and scales, but that such designs would have made Sonic "a lot more alien and different from what [the character] is known for."

 

Not exact words, but you can get the point.

[Salamander]

I don't know if a broad degree of experimentation that was never meant to represent a finalised product image is really all that good a basis to jduge on.  Especially when you know barely anything about those designs other than that some of them had scales.

[MamboCat]

Hedgehogs have scales now?

 

I think I'd like to see some of these earlier ideas, perhaps in unlockable extras on the game? I guess what happened was adding extra textures and stuff, a bit like the Sonic fan movie *shudders* and it might have been a bit too busy.