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Like? Hate? How to Improve? :Gimmicks


Danj86

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Hello, it's me again. I can't sleep so I feel like typing.

Have we discussed in length the gimmick? The gimmick is defined as "a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or trade." 

When we talk about gimmicks in the Sonic franchise, we think of unique aspects of the games or the franchise as a whole. I'm asking which you like, which you hate and how do you think one could be improved. You can answer one, two or all of them. But what is a gimmick? Well, I've been considering that myself, I'm thinking a gimmick is different to a staple. A staple is a permanent aspect of a game. So for Sonic it would be the rings keeping you alive, the loops, slopes and the springs that go boing! While a gimmick is more of a one time thing or might be used several times, but not always, like the boost, Werehog or the Wisps.

So, lets see the options for Sonic The Hedgehog and the gimmicks over the years.

Special Stage?

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I normally would've considered this a staple, but recent games don't often include them so I'm not really sure what to class this as. I guess I'll leave that up to you guys. But while a special stage could be considered a staple, they often use different gimmicks...now I'm getting confused. Yeah, I'll leave it with you guys, thinking hurts my head.

Select a Character:

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Multiple playable characters is featured a lot. I often prefer it when characters have different abilities and get to use them to travel to new areas. And the Sonic series does often do that. The exception to this is probably Sonic Heroes.

Super Sonic:

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It does feel strange going back to Sonic 1, getting all the emeralds and not getting a golden hedgehog as a reward. It took sometime before the original Super Sonic mechanic that was so familiar from Sonic 2 and 3&K returned in the 3D games, it didn't even make it in the advance, rush or rivals games, although it wouldn't be fair if he was featured in Sonic Rivals in the same way...

Race:

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More often than not it is used as a way to play 2 players, but with Sonic Adventure as well as Rivals 1 and 2, they are often included in the main game racing a computer character. When I first played the final battle against Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2, I actually thought it was a race. lol

Boost:

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Boost to win? Have they actually tried that? I did. I tripped over a stump, hit a wall and eventually fell into a pit. But anyway, they are those that hate it and those that don't. I often find it hard to keep up with the action while boosting and usually wait to use in while flying in the air or on an open pathway.

Mech Shooter/Shooter:

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I lumped the Mech shooters of Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 with the gun mechanic of Shadow The Hedgehog, which is just a dirty shortcut by me as the 2 play nothing alike. Gamma had the pressure of time, while I felt odd playing as Tails when he's just sitting down but it was cool to play as Dr. Eggman. Meanwhile with Shadow, I just preferred to homing attack enemies, I recall aiming was a bit...bad?

Werehog

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I personally like the Werehog stages, I just felt that they were too long. They still had the platforming, but combat was the biggest aspect of this gimmick.

Hunting:

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Beep Beep Beep. "It's closer!" I also liked these type of levels, Adventure 2 added a twist by making you find them in a set order, but it's not gonna be everyone's cup of tea.

Tag:

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Tag refers to changing character during the level. Most notably used in Sonic Heroes, it was also used in both Sonic Boom games. But not in Knuckles Chaotix, despite having two characters on screen.

Elastic Ring:

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I mentioned Knuckles Chaotix, so here it is. I never really mastered the proper way to use the Elastic Ring, I'd usually just end up climbing a wall or something. lol

Wisps:

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It was something different that added lots of alternate path opportunities in my opinion. The range of wisp types was interesting too.

Parkour:

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I found it as an interesting idea that took a little time to get used to. Still, I liked the game, so there! XP

Am I forgetting something? It feels like I'm forgetting something?

Would Sonic Riders count, or should we consider it a spinoff? They are racing games but not really part of the main series...anyway, I think I covered most stuff. Why did I make this topic again?

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My favorites? 

Wisps:  I hope they come back. I really like the wisps. Because they allow Sonic to expend his moves. He can drill, hover, eagle, spike and alot more. He can also turn into a black hole to suck enimes. A grey gem to send the shockwave through the walls. He can turn into a thunder bolt. Sonic can also be an eagle and a fireball! How awesome is that! I can explore with my favorite character and see moves I didnt think he can do but he can do them. Some wisps are unessary like eagle and hover they are both the samething. take out hover and keep crimson eagle .magenta i never understand but I like the fun they put into ablity. Spike is good because he can stick to walls and it helps me out ALOT! Overall this gameplay make my favorite character amazing and hes powerful. I hope they come back and that they are Sonics thing only.

Werehog: Sonic changes into a warehog and has different moves. He is slower but not too slow, just right. In this form, Sonic still had the moves like an acrobat. He can spin on poles to go to high places and he can use his arms to go faster for dashing. Sonic can double jump and hang on ledges. He can also use fighting skills. He can punch and spin his enimes to the ground. He collects force called Gia force to be stronger and get more moves. Sonic can also grab monsters and slam them to the ground and he can even use them to get across to higher places. This gameplay was alot of fun and it was different and one of the best ways to show Sonic and his skills

Boost: I love this ablity so much. It is fast and it feels so much like Sonic like I am experiansing what Sonic is experiansing. One of Sonic's best ablities yet. 

Edited by Mikyeong
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Gimmicks? Well, they have been quite mixed in my opinion in the Sonic's history. But let's make one thing clear: do not put gimmicks just for the sake of having them. For example: Wii has a motion controls. Make a game which is nothing but them. 3DS has gyroscope. Let's make special stages completely centered around it.

Now that we got that out of the way here is some of my opinions on some of the gimmicks.

Special stages: I pretty much told everything worthwhile in the special stage -thread. But I personally kinda prefer special stages over Chaos Emeralds being fully integrated to a plot.

Select a character: Has to come back. Really. Playing as different characters with unique skills is just so much fun and is easy way to get replayability (especially considering of how short modern Sonic-games are). Just remember one thing: DON'T REMOVE SPEED.

Super forms: I said Super forms and not Super Sonic because others, Super Shadow, Super Silver, Super Tails, Super Knuckles and Burning Blaze (and why not come up with some new ones, not to mention Hyper forms) has to REALLY come back. Again, it would add more funto a game and in case of having multiple characters, good way to add gametime because I would get all Emeralds with every single characters as long as getting them isn't total bs.(At least Sonic World release 5 has all of them)

Race: Haven't played Rivals but I think if done right, like with Tails's gameplay in SA1, it can really work because of tbe importance of speed in Sonic.

Boost: This depends of course if the game is good or not but I find boosting mostly very fun but I think it doesn't even compareto the spind dash in SA1 in the terms of fun-factor. And generally I just prefer how Sonic handled in Dreamcast-era.

Mech/Shooting: I liked Gamma in SA1 but don't really care about mech-stages in SA2. Shooting? I'm fine with that becauseit made to me game better and in Shadow-levels in 06 I really wish that I would have a gun just to kill enemies faster.

Werehog: Maybe I'm just being unfair but that is the reason why I haven't played Unleashed yet (I have played Unleashed mod in Generations). I'm just not fan of beat-em-ups. Not to mention it just looks stupid to me.

Hunting: Fun in SA1, then SA2 butchered the radar and gave us Mad Space. Don't bring these levels back

Tag: I personally really like it and to me it adds lot to a game when done right. I would really like to see a spiritual successor to Heroes. Just don't make other character relevant by removing other characters abilities.

Wisp: Fine in Colours but I just like the fact how often they are mandatory to use. Not to mention it doesn't even make sense to begin with to have them for example in Lost World. But my biggest problem is that the Wisp are basically replacements to the other characters by giving Sonic their abilities.

In the end, this series has had some good and bad gimmicks but I would like to them focus more on the main gameplay over the gimmicks, unlike in the Lost World accprding to what I have saw.

Edited by RipeFIN
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I think it's interesting that some gimmicks have the potential to become staples.  Super Sonic looks pretty gimmicky at first glance, but is probably one of the series's biggest staple gimmicks at this point, reinterpreted through the prism of each individual game and its structure.  Iizuka somewhat notoriously thought that Wisps should become a series staple, which accounts for their presence in Lost World (and perhaps also Runners).  The Boost more or less began as a gimmick for the Rush games before being adopted into the main series.

I think it's easy to take an issue with gimmicks, though, as too prominent, and distracting from the need to create a solid regular gameplay system for Sonic.  There was a period, and it may be that we're still in it, when there were fears that Sonic was becoming a gimmick-based series.  Werehog.  Swordplay.  To a lesser extent, Wisps and parkour, though those are less offensive as they fit in well with the basic idea of Sonic.  But often these games' gimmicks define them, consume them; you couldn't just take the swordplay or the parkour out of Black Knight and Lost World, for instance.  That suggests an element of reinvention of the wheel each time that may be holding the series back from establishing a firm gameplay base on which to build.  It's kind of inefficient, and makes it hard to bank on enjoying a future Sonic game as you know nothing about how it'll play.  I would like to see a future game worry less about what its particular gimmick is and place more focus on developing an accessible and natural gameplay system which can be reused in future games.

As to my opinions on various gimmicks in the series: It's fine for special stages to have gimmicks, really, owing to the nature of them, but as discussed in the special stages topic I'd like it if they related a little more to Sonic's regular gameplay and ability set rather than essentially being a completely different game.  The Boost works a lot better in 3D than it ever did in 2D as you can see what's coming, so I think it was natural to extend it to the main series, but they never properly refreshed the 2D gameplay afterwards.  Wisps are okay but are inseparable from their story context and really shouldn't have been brought back in complete contradiction of Colours's ending.  And there should probably be more races in Sonic, all things considered, given the emphasis on going fast.

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I really hope they don't give up on parkour just because it didn't work well in Lost World. Of all the gimmicks the series has tried, I think it's the best fit for Sonic; parkour is basically "extreme platforming IRL", with a focus on moving quickly and fluidly, so it seems like a natural direction to expand Sonic's abilities. It just needs to actually be quick and fluid, not stiff and awkward like in Lost World.

I'd be interested to see more racing "boss fights" in the series. Sonic games aren't usually designed for combat; making bosses another kind of platforming challenge is probably a better test of your skills than a straight fight.

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I really hope they don't give up on parkour just because it didn't work well in Lost World. Of all the gimmicks the series has tried, I think it's the best fit for Sonic; parkour is basically "extreme platforming IRL", with a focus on moving quickly and fluidly, so it seems like a natural direction to expand Sonic's abilities. It just needs to actually be quick and fluid, not stiff and awkward like in Lost World.

I'd be interested to see more racing "boss fights" in the series. Sonic games aren't usually designed for combat; making bosses another kind of platforming challenge is probably a better test of your skills than a straight fight.

Just wanted to pop in and say how much I tend to agree with your mentality. Other than your views on Generations, I think you are bang on with the state of Sonic games. I give you a thumbs up!

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I actually think gimmicks are a good thing that can set a game apart from others, but the problem is that they don't always work well, and depending on how big a role in the game they play in their respective games, being a bad gimmick can either be something you can miss, or it can make the whole game an ordeal to enjoy.

On special stages, I can take them or leave them. I liked them best in Sonic 3, as they were rewards for exploration, and you could find more than one in each stage. So it wasn't this one specific hard to find thing, and you didn't need to hold 50 rings to get into. The special stages themselves are a very mixed bag because they're different in every game. I love Sonic 1, CD and 3 special stages. Sonic 2 and Sonic Heroes are okay. But Sonic Advance is a nightmare.

Select a character is a GREAT idea that can add variety and replayability, also fan service to people who like more than just Sonic, the problem is the execution. Selecting a character is done best when it's an option and not mandatory, and all the characters play mostly the same, but have one or two signature abilities that set them apart. They're done the worst when the game forces you to play them, possibly in the middle of another character's level, and they practically change the genre of the game when people buy Sonic for fast platforming.

I can take or leave Super Sonic. Playing Super Sonic in the levels lost it's novelty a long time ago. But I don't mind Super Sonic in the final act of the game.

I can take or leave racing. I don't come to Sonic for a multiplayer experience, but the race style makes for good boss battles that seems more like "Sonic" than just hammering on a stationary boss.

I can take or leave the Boost. It's essentially the modern spindash, but it's instantanious and it goes on forever if you get a steady stream of rings.

I can take or leave Mech/Shooter.  I really enjoyed Gamma as a character and playing as him, but the mechs in SA2 were more heavy and difficult to move. The guns in Shadow felt like they made things too easy sometimes but they were functional. I feel like they could have been fun in puzzles like Eggman's balloon challenge thing, but why even have that if you can't actually aim.

I couldn't stand the Werehog. It took up too much of the game and was way too repetitive.

Didn't mind Treasure Hunting in SA1. It would have been okay in SA2 if it weren't for taking away the ability to track all three pieces at once, and the nightmare that was timed missions and Rouge's Space mission. Also it would be better suited for a Knuckles or Rouge solo game instead of part of a Sonic game.

Tag is a mechanic I love, but I don't know that I like the execution. It felt like I was still controlling one character instead of switching off between three. Not sure how I can explain that. But I loved it to death in the romhack, Sonic Classic Heroes.

I can take or leave the Elastic Ring. I will say that if they ever wanted to make a Co-op multiplayer Sonic game, it could only work well if they brought this back. It can bee pretty chaotic though, what with the flinging about that can be done.

I could take or leave the wisps. Mostly leave. I feel the same way about them as I do about Rosalina in Mario ( and Knuckles in Sonic for that matter ). Great in the games where the story calls for them, but it kind of bugs me that they're just thrown in for no reason given their very specific origins/roles.

And Parkour was my favorite Gimmick in a long time, I will be so sad if this goes away just because Lost World wasn't so well received. ( I think the game was pretty good personally. ) It's kind of crazy to me that it took us this long  to get a Sonic that grabs ledges, let alone one that can run straight up them like he's done in so many TV shows. 

 

 

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Can I just say first of all that I think it's fucking annoying that we're considering something as mundane as selecting one of multiple characters to play as a "gimmick"? Seriously, I can't think of a single other franchise that gets shit for this. Seemingly the only reason Sonic does is because SA1 and 2 felt that characters should have almost nothing to do with each other gameplay wise for some reason, and that doesn't even have anything to do with the concept of multiple characters - subsequent games proved perfectly capable of splitting gameplay into completely unrelated styles even with just Sonic alone.

I think that having the choice to pick between characters for a slightly different control and game-play experience isn't a gimmick.

The idea of choosing different characters who control entirely different and/or have their own separate story campaign that are all part of an even bigger plot is itself a story based gimmick.

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