what would Nintendo do if they got sonic

[A sonic fan]

This is a question ive been thinking about for a while, personally i dont rate sonic team as game developers and want to see sonic under another developer, the common place frequently mentioned is Nintendo but if nintendo were to get sonic. would they remove 3d and rip away all story and get rid of everyone that isnt sonic,tails,knuckles, amy and eggman , would they differentiate sonic from mario and do something more story heavy and serious like the adventure games, I personally have a bad feeling they would scrap most of the modern sonic elements established from sonic team and just create a faster mario clone. but what are your thoughts ?

[Badnik Mechanic]

Keep him in a box.

Bring him out for Smash bros.

And possibly one other game every 10 years. Like they do with their own franchises which are not Mario or Zelda.

[Indigo Rush]

Tie him to a chair and interrogate one of the employees on their new "NiGHTS" game coming out for the Sega Saturn except it's actually just an extended commercial

[Wraith]

They'd just pass him off to one of their secondary studios, probably. Most of those are pretty good, though, so you'd be in for a treat. 

 

Whether or not Adventure elements stay would depend on the team imo.

[Mr Loopone]

Most likely that Nintendo will give the series to one of their lesser known second party developers since I don't think Miyamoto or Koizumi would be interested to work on a Sonic game at all. They have access to Arzest and they have Ohshima so in a roundabout way, the main man gets to work on the series again. Its like Sonic CD never left. They could also ask Prope (Yuji Naka's company) to do a Sonic game. Both of these are best case scenarios as they worked on the games however Arzest have a bit of a bad reputation when it comes to games.

As for style, yeah... It is most likely that it'll go with the 2D or the 2.5D look of the games, either platformers or small time spinoffs. They could do a 3D Sonic Adventure era game but it's not normally Nintendo's style (that is gameplay over story, most story focused Nintendo games are in the backburner Zelda aside) and higher ups don't want to compete with Mario (rather like the 1990s when Miyamoto didn't like Donkey Kong Country at the time as he felt it was competing with Yoshi's Island, both are platformers). You wonder why there hasn't been a Mario & Sonic platformer? That is most likely your answer. If there are any 3D Sonic games, except them to be like Sonic Lost World for one.

Then again if the series doesn't do gangbusters for them, has a strong connection to a company (why you get loads of Kirby games despite not selling well) or both like Pokemon that sells well despite not completely handled by Nintendo, expect about one or two games and Smash Bros with said games being re-released in 10+ years time. Also considering Nintendo has plenty of platforming series by itself (Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Yoshi, handheld spinoffs) they might not even bother much with the Sonic series, after all there have been some Nintendo games with that one release and that's it (some will never come to the Virtual Console). Say goodbye to merchandise, cartoons and most marketing apart from the odd ad online. Also say goodbye to fan games and ROM hacks too.

[Neo_Fire_Sonic]

if nintendo got sonic, then we can't have fan games huh

yeah i guess no thanks to this idea

[Badnik Mechanic]

Also goodbye to fan conventions.

So long YouTube let's plays and other videos.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Wouldn't be so bad. I'd expect them to reorganize the entire verse and make it coherent and cohesive, in addition to making a really good game out of it.

Nintendo would immediately recognize that Sonic has a lot of continuity that fans pay attention to and other things, so they could either continue with things as is without any of the bizarre decisions Sonic Team does, or ironically make similar bizarre decisions but manage to do so without alienating fans, or start things over at the beginning and reintroduce everything while improving or putting in serious works on the elements that fell heavily short under Sonic Team's direction. Or something unexpected entirely.

That said, I don't want to be too optimisitic given how many unknowns there are, but I don't think Nintendo is as blind or short-sighted. They'll recognize the good, they might attempt to actually find potential in the bad elements and surprise us by showing they can actually be pretty damn good if executed well, or they might do something entirely unexpected that no one can predict. And they'll recognize what criticisms to listen to in the fandom and which ones to ignore.

The only thing I have against it is that it would be exclusive to Nintendo consoles for the most part, which as someone who doesn't often get Nintendo products from the start isn't gonna be fond of and would rather Sonic stay multiplatform.

[Multikaris]

I expect nothing good to come about. They'd shut down fan works left and right as opposed to hire the fans, they'd close the franchise from adaptation into other media, they would probably not care about deeper story at all, and they'd eventually simply sit on the franchise after a point. It would be better if it was released into the public domain, actually.

[MadmanRB]

Indeed, nintendo would be worse for sonic than sega could ever hope to be.

[A sonic fan]

14 hours ago, Mayor D said:

Keep him in a box.

Bring him out for Smash bros.

And possibly one other game every 10 years. Like they do with their own franchises which are not Mario or Zelda.

tbf sonic is just as popular as link and mario, and far more popular than their other franchises, Nintendo only focus more on mario and zelda because those are their 2 biggest brands and will be more likely to sell. Sonic is as iconic and popular as those 2 which would lead me to believe he would or should at least get  far more focus than the likes of starfox metroid and kirby.

 

[Flyinpenguin117]

1 hour ago, A sonic fan said:

tbf sonic is just as popular as link and mario, and far more popular than their other franchises, Nintendo only focus more on mario and zelda because those are their 2 biggest brands and will be more likely to sell. Sonic is as iconic and popular as those 2 which would lead me to believe he would or should at least get  far more focus than the likes of starfox metroid and kirby.

 

Easy to say as a Sonic fan. To the wider gaming community, he's still a laughing stock whose better for memes than games. A couple handheld remasters and Smash Bros. appearances, then he'd be shelved.

[A sonic fan]

34 minutes ago, Flyinpenguin117 said:

Easy to say as a Sonic fan. To the wider gaming community, he's still a laughing stock whose better for memes than games. A couple handheld remasters and Smash Bros. appearances, then he'd be shelved.

Despite that he is still one of the most well known characters out there if you ask a bunch of random people on the street if they know sonic most would say yes and alot more would know him than kirby starfox samus and the like. He still has a high brand value. if handled correctly this franchise can end up being really popular again.(obviously not as popular as the 90s tho)

[memoryman3]

Considering Mario exists and has a bad habit of not using it's characters, I don't think they'll bother with Sonic lore and such.

[JezMM]

Ughhhh this thread has a bunch of the exact circlejerk of anti-nintendo sentiments and boring oversimplification of how they treat their franchises that I expected it to have lol.

 

Firstly, the recent shutdown of AM2R makes complete sense in the context that Nintendo turned out to be working on a Metroid 2 remake of their own.  It's highly likely other high-profile fangames that got shut down are of a similar nature, and regardless, Nintendo is completely in their right to do this with properties they percieve as directly competing with their own products.  It's also worth remembering that the guys making Sonic Mania approached SEGA with pitches first, not the other way round.  Granted though, with all due respect to legal justification considered, it'd still suck to see inspiring projects like Utopia, Before/After The Sequel, and Dreams Collection be taken down.

Secondly, suggesting that they'd take Sonic in the same direction as Mario is completely non-sensical.  Nintendo has a ton of active platformer franchises: Mario, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Metroid and recently Chibi Robo and Pikmin have entered the fray too.  All of these franchises have taken quite different directions from one another in their latest and upcoming entries.  To suggest the only kind of platform game Nintendo knows how to make is Mario (of which the latest entry looks fucking innovative and AMAZING anyway) is incredibly narrow-minded.

Suggesting they'd just leave it to gather dust is also a silly assumption.  F-Zero is pretty much the only big franchise they have right now that is on hiatus.  Arguably Earthbound too I guess if one considers that a "regular" ongoing franchise rather than a once in a decade sorta deal.  Every other franchise has had new games come out as recently as the Wii U or 3DS, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

The above concepts are fine to have as concerns, but it bugs me when people say they'd "expect" it to happen just because they aren't paying attention to the bigger picture of Nintendo.  "Nintendo only care about Mario and Zelda" like, fucking really, Arms, Splatoon, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem, Pokémon, Kirby, Animal Crossing, these franchises have been massively pushed to the forefront whenever a new release is incoming (aside from Kirby I guess which only makes the list here due to his habit to just keep getting quality games one after another in spite of the lack of attention towards him lol).

[Solly]

9 hours ago, MadmanRB said:

Indeed, nintendo would be worse for sonic than sega could ever hope to be.

I'm struggling to think of what they could realistically do to accomplish this.

[MadmanRB]

 One word:

Metroid

How about another word?

Mother (Earthbound)

How about another word?

StarTropics?

[Wraith]

56 minutes ago, MadmanRB said:

 One word:

Metroid

How about another word?

Mother (Earthbound)

How about another word?

StarTropics?

To put this into perspective: A series that's getting two games, one for 2D fans and one for 3D fans, next year, a series with a definitive end point, and a one off NES game are what you're using for your argument here. Compared to the literal dozens of franchises they've managed just fine. 

If you wanted to make an ACTUAL point you could have used the poor management of like, Star Fox or F Zero or something, but you didn't. I don't get why people who don't know anything about Nintendo post in this topic.

 

[MadmanRB]

I know a lot about Nintendo and yes F zero and Star Fox are also good examples of how Nintendo can shaft good properties.

And Nintendo isnt a company of angels, they had that crap with youtube and they shut down several fan projects because they are more worried about IP than anything else.

Nintendo is a company period, a entity of suits and business.

And they are open to criticism, but I understand you are probably a nintendo fanboy or something and are unwilling to hear people complain about your favorite company or even think people can have opposing viewpoints.

[Multikaris]

7 hours ago, JezMM said:

Ughhhh this thread has a bunch of the exact circlejerk of anti-nintendo sentiments and boring oversimplification of how they treat their franchises that I expected it to have lol.

 

Firstly, the recent shutdown of AM2R makes complete sense in the context that Nintendo turned out to be working on a Metroid 2 remake of their own.  It's highly likely other high-profile fangames that got shut down are of a similar nature, and regardless, Nintendo is completely in their right to do this with properties they percieve as directly competing with their own products.  It's also worth remembering that the guys making Sonic Mania approached SEGA with pitches first, not the other way round.  Granted though, with all due respect to legal justification considered, it'd still suck to see inspiring projects like Utopia, Before/After The Sequel, and Dreams Collection be taken down.

Secondly, suggesting that they'd take Sonic in the same direction as Mario is completely non-sensical.  Nintendo has a ton of active platformer franchises: Mario, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Metroid and recently Chibi Robo and Pikmin have entered the fray too.  All of these franchises have taken quite different directions from one another in their latest and upcoming entries.  To suggest the only kind of platform game Nintendo knows how to make is Mario (of which the latest entry looks fucking innovative and AMAZING anyway) is incredibly narrow-minded.

Suggesting they'd just leave it to gather dust is also a silly assumption.  F-Zero is pretty much the only big franchise they have right now that is on hiatus.  Arguably Earthbound too I guess if one considers that a "regular" ongoing franchise rather than a once in a decade sorta deal.  Every other franchise has had new games come out as recently as the Wii U or 3DS, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

The above concepts are fine to have as concerns, but it bugs me when people say they'd "expect" it to happen just because they aren't paying attention to the bigger picture of Nintendo.  "Nintendo only care about Mario and Zelda" like, fucking really, Arms, Splatoon, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem, Pokémon, Kirby, Animal Crossing, these franchises have been massively pushed to the forefront whenever a new release is incoming (aside from Kirby I guess which only makes the list here due to his habit to just keep getting quality games one after another in spite of the lack of attention towards him lol).

1) I think the Metroid 2 remake was either coincidental or BECAUSE of AM2R's cancellation. Tell me, what does No Mario's Sky resemble? Or the HD Mario 64 remake? With things like Project M and SMFR in mind, one may even believe that Nintendo'll hit down any number of promising projects that "overlap" with their potentially boilerplate at best output. Oh, and Nintendo, as I mentioned before, would likely curtail cross-media projects with distinct stories.

2) Those franchises you mentioned (bar Metroid) are (now) similar tone-wise rather than in gameplay. That's why we're worried. We want it to have a different tone than what Nintendo is doing right now. 

3) Not only F-Zero and Earthbound, but also Punch-Out, Wario, and Nintendo Wars. It also took massive fan demand for Metroid to get out of its slump. It looks like Star Fox will also be entering this territory once again. 

4) It's good that they're making baby steps. Most of those, however, are new franchises. This makes it unclear if Sonic will get that treatment.

[JezMM]

14 hours ago, Miru the Living Planet said:

1) I think the Metroid 2 remake was either coincidental or BECAUSE of AM2R's cancellation. Tell me, what does No Mario's Sky resemble? Or the HD Mario 64 remake? Oh, and Nintendo, as I mentioned before, would likely curtail cross-media projects with distinct stories.

2) Those franchises you mentioned (bar Metroid) are (now) similar tone-wise rather than in gameplay. That's why we're worried. We want it to have a different tone than what Nintendo is doing right now. 

3) Not only F-Zero and Earthbound, but also Punch-Out, Wario, and Nintendo Wars. It also took massive fan demand for Metroid to get out of its slump. It looks like Star Fox will also be entering this territory once again. 

4) It's good that they're making baby steps. Most of those, however, are new franchises. This makes it unclear if Sonic will get that treatment.

1. You really think they threw together Samus Returns in about half a year?  I'm not familiar with No Mario's Sky, but HD Mario 64 resembles regular Mario 64, which is a currently sold title on Wii U and Wii.  Like it's stupid but there's a legal logic to it.

2. They're not similar in tone in any way other than "a general sense of upbeatness" which... Sonic currently has too.  Kirby Planet Robobot has multiple character deaths in it's overall storyline, which you wouldn't really see in Wooly World.  DKCR is a far cry in visual and musical style from Chibi Robo.

3. Fair enough on those, but, aside from Wario maybe, there's no doubt that these franchises are WAY more niché than Sonic is.  I don't think Nintendo would give Sonic the same treatment.

Regardless, I think it kinda just kills the conversation dead to just say "they'd prolly not make a game".  Like great they bought the Sonic license and did nothing with it, that makes sense, money well spent.

 

 

Ultimately though my answer to the question is way more of a dialogue killer than even that because my answer is... "none of us have any idea and are just guessing based on our own biases"... which is why I just responded to the anti-nintendo posts rather than giving my own view on the topic lol.  It's a hypothetical scenario that is just too vague to interest me.  Like you could go more specific "what if Nintendo took Sonic and gave it to the guys who made Yoshi's New Island?" Well it'd prolly be shit lol.  "What if Nintendo took Sonic and gave it to Retro Studios?" It'd prolly be pretty good.  But just "What if Nintendo took Sonic" is too full of unknowns for me.

[Tara]

1 hour ago, MadmanRB said:

I know a lot about Nintendo and yes F zero and Star Fox are also good examples of how Nintendo can shaft good properties.

And Nintendo isnt a company of angels, they had that crap with youtube and they shut down several fan projects because they are more worried about IP than anything else.

Nintendo is a company period, a entity of suits and business.

And they are open to criticism, but I understand you are probably a nintendo fanboy or something and are unwilling to hear people complain about your favorite company or even think people can have opposing viewpoints.

"You probably don't want to hear people complain about your favorite company despite the fact that you just did!"

Seriously, these bad faith arguments aren't doing wonders for your reading comprehension, so I might suggest you to stop presuming things about people before they've even had the chance to say them.  Anymore of these will earn you a strike.

[Solly]

6 hours ago, MadmanRB said:

 One word:

Metroid

How about another word?

Mother (Earthbound)

How about another word?

StarTropics?

Okay, of these series: Metroid is getting two games in the span of one year, Mother is a personal project by Itoi, who is primarily a writer and doesn't really want to make another one, and StarTropics is a relatively obscure series with few entries that didn't even get released in Japan-- I'm honestly kind of shocked you brought it up. Like, really?

If we're gonna play that game, why are we overlooking all of SEGA's untouched IPs? Where's Space Harrier? Space Channel 5? Skies of Arcadia? Jet Set Radio? Billy Hatcher? Daytona? Golden Axe? Sea Man? House of the Dead? SEGA Bass Fishing? Do I sound dumb yet?

[MadmanRB]

Well it does look like Sega will fix that soon with sega forever which while a bit buggy right ow can be fixed and made great for segas older IP's and hopefully it wont just remain mobile.

Look Sega has fucked up too, they all have but I am not a fan of Nintendo.

Nor Sony

Nor Microsoft

Nor valve for that matter even if my platform is the PC

[SonicComicFanboy]

I've secretly hoped for years Nintendo would someday own both Sonic & Megaman as that would mean they would actually get good games or in Megaman's case games in general again.

 

 And with the Big N branching out into other media again ( Mario & Pokemon movies in development, a Splatoon anime, etc)  we could probably still get comics for both characters.  Heck, Nintendo might even use a wider variety of both franchises casts, ecspecially for the inevitable racing and party games.