No 3D Sonic?

[FireBird75]

Proposal: Hey try some of this stuff

 

 

Eh...no thanks.  We'll stick to what we know.

 

 

What would have happened if Sonic never had any 3D?  We all know the reasons why the series went into the third dimension but what do you supposed would have happened if Sega decided that they wouldn't follow the trend and decided to stay 2D exclusively? I really would like to know all the kinds of theories on what could have happened to the series.  

 

Feel free to make your thoughts as simple or as crazy as you like

 

 

 

 

Note:  I didn't make this topic because I hate the 3D titles and/or because I think Sonic should have never went 3D, as I like quite a few the Blue Blur's 3D games myself.  I'm just asking this because I can't seem to answer the question myself and also I'm just really curious about what could have been.

[Froggy]

Part of me feels like the team was simply becoming bored with Sonic, and the games would probably have deteriorated anyway. It's hard to say. I've always wondered if Naka had some weird copyright on his engine, let Dimps in on his secrets for the Advance games then said "screw you guys LOL", resulting in the Rush gameplay later on. Even if the games stayed 2D I don't think we would have got a true Sonic 4 or anything like that.

[iDEATH]

Hard to say really. There's not a whole lot of innovation in the 2d titles. The advance games offer extra moves but might as well just be more megadrive titles in terms of their content. Same with the rush series, you can boost but it's still pretty much the same game.

 

That's not to say they're not great games, they are, but I think you need the variety present in the 3d titles, be it genre roulette, the modern boost gameplay or werehog style platforming, to get the benefit of the nostalgia hit the 2d games give off.

 

So...if the series had never went 3d. It probably would have died. People will only put up with the same game being released over and over again for so long. It'd have got stale and ended at some point. Unless of course they found some way to translate the innovations in the 3d games to the 2d style.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Probably like Megaman: Consistent quality up to a point, but gets stagnant eventually.

[SlickEvan]

I kind of feel that Sonic might not have made it too long without the transition, don't get me wrong there's lots you can do but I don't feel that it'd be up to snuff after awhile. Probably would have still lasted long but wouldn't be still running. Maybe there is the other road that they could go down and make things like a Sonic 4 episode # type game (preferably the 2nd in my opinion) and just as fan games have showed us, they probably could make many more different 2D titles. 

 

It depends on the Staff and many other deciding factors I guess. Hmm.

[StaticMania]

Part of me feels like the team was simply becoming bored with Sonic, and the games would probably have deteriorated anyway. It's hard to say. I've always wondered if Naka had some weird copyright on his engine, let Dimps in on his secrets for the Advance games then said "screw you guys LOL", resulting in the Rush gameplay later on. Even if the games stayed 2D I don't think we would have got a true Sonic 4 or anything like that.

The Sonic Advance engine isn't the same as the Classic Sonic game engine...all of the separate series of 2D Sonic games have their own engine.

[Froggy]

The Sonic Advance engine isn't the same as the Classic Sonic game engine...all of the separate series of 2D Sonic games have their own engine.

I know it isn't, read the part after you ended the bold tag. I admit what I said doesn't make sense anyway but I definitely know a gameboy advance game (C/ARM) aint using no assembly engine written for the Genesis.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Probably like Megaman: Consistent quality up to a point, but gets stagnant eventually.

To be fair, Megaman has tried to be innovative up until the ZX series.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

To be fair, Megaman has tried to be innovative up until the ZX series.

Well I wouldn't be able to tell .

[Sonicstitch]

I think they needed to Go 3D but they need to waet a bit longer for the technology.

And Sega should have skipped Saturn. Instead make one console that played Sega Genesis SEGA CD and 32X game and soled it for $200.00. they could then have make

Sonic 4 32X CD.

[Ash Cloud]

Sonic probably wouldn't have lasted as long as he has, in fact I truly believe that he would have died after the Game Gear/Sega Saturn/Sega 32X Dark Age had it not been for Sonic Adventure. Sega was clearly running out of ideas back then, not to mention they killed themselves by spewing too many consoles out at once.

[Wittymations]

Well, at the time, Mario and Sonic were still rivals. It would have looked bad if Mario made the jump to 3D but Sonic (who's supposed to be cooler and more technologically advanced) decided to stay old hat. I'd think Sonic would have lost an extreme amount of popularity, especially when so many games were coming to the 3D age.

Me, personally? I would not be as invested into Sonic as I am. Sure, the Classics made me love Sonic, Sonic 1 was my first game. However, it was the Adventures that made me FALL in love with the franchise. And it was such a strong fall, that I've been waiting well over a decade for them to finally clean up all the bullshit and take the series in the right direction, both gameplay and plot. Still hasn't happened.

[Shadow]

I think 3D sonic games with homing missile are the most fun ones :3

There are 2D sonic games which i think is really bad, like Sonic Rush on Nintendo DS, where you basically press 1 button down to just run throughout the stage with no obstacles, compared to for example Sonic Advance on Gameboy Advance, which is a really solid game.

 

I do think so far that "Sonic Adventure 2 Battle" is the best sonic game in 3D. Just imagine how good it would be with new ideas with these graphics on the new gen and new levels "Sonic Adventure 3". Would literally been so good. But it seems nowadays they are just trying to please retro fans with renewing old game ideas with better graphics, rather than trying to take new leaps.

[sonfan1984]

 But it seems nowadays they are just trying to please retro fans with renewing old game ideas with better graphics, rather than trying to take new leaps.

 

Er...you're kinda two years behind with that complaint and now they're trying new things again, lol.

[Phos]

It seems to me as though the change in quality was mostly down to the change in talent, which would have happened regardless. Hirokazu Yasuhara still would have wound up disenfranchised with Sega's Sonic milking, Yuji Naka still would have wound up in a management role as producer, not really touching the games, and I don't actually remember why Naoto Oshima left.

Chris Senn never would have almost died of pneumonia trying to finish Sonic Xtreme, and traveler's tails would be known in some circles for releasing an obscure car racing game on the Saturn. Mad Dash Racing would have been the first 3D foot racing game.

Sonic actually had a decent chance of working out pretty well in 3D, but the games ended up being directed by Takashi Iizuka, who I don't think was the right guy for the job. Up until Hirokazu Yasuhara's departure from the franchise, it seemed like he was on track design wise to getting Sonic running in 3D.

[Milo]

Sonic obviously should had taken the jump to 3D at some point, otherwise he would had went the way of Megaman as previously mentioned or would had faded into obscurity as a relic of the 90s. But with that said I don't think Sega should had tried making the Video Game 3D Leap without Sonic Team. They should had waited for Sonic Team to finish what they were doing first and then let them bring the franchise in 3D properly rather than task someone else to do it. It's like trying to prepare a dish in an entirely new way without the main chefs who prepare it.

 

Tasking STI to make a new (mainstream) Sonic game for the Saturn I don't think was inherently a bad idea, but I think the ideal thing to do would be to task them with making a 2.5D game. Maybe have some bonus/special stages be full 3D levels like in the Saturn version of 3D Blast, but otherwise have the classic Genesis gameplay in 2D while taking advantage of the Saturn's graphical capabilities to create 3D graphics and have level design on different planes like in Bug!.

 

Sure it wouldn't had made the 3D leap like rivals Nintendo (with Mario) and Sony (with Crash) were doing, and people would likely criticized the game for not following the leaders, but if at the end of the day you still have a good mainstream Sonic game for Saturn owners to look forward too, I that would had been acceptable for the time at the very least.

[Tara]

I think everyone else already stated it well.  As much as Mega Man has attempted to keep from becoming stale, there really is only so much you can do when it's the same old game over and over again at heart.  Sonic could try many things, but I don't think any amount of gimmicks could change that it's just running to the end of the stage at the end of the day.  3D offers a refreshing spin and an alternate style of play, not to mention keeps him at least partially relevant in the modern market.  I'm willing to wager that had SA1 never came into fruition, Sonic would probably have faded into an obscurity and forever be revered as a relic of the 90's.

 

Plus, I probably wouldn't be nearly as into Sonic as I am now, since SA1 was the game that turned me into a hardcore fan as opposed to a moderately invested, casual fan.

[FireBird75]

I can easily see where people coming from here.  I think it's perfectly understandable that without making the jump into the third dimension, the Sonic series could've have gotten very stale and "same-y" with each released new title.  There might have been only so much the series could do in 2D w/o things becoming rather, for a lack of a better word, redundant.

 

Any other thoughts?