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Euro Gamer Interview Nakamura on Forces, Mania and the Future of Sonic


Blue Blood

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On 31/10/2017 at 12:28 AM, knuckles20 said:

Seprating Sonic into two forms was a mistake. 

I think the bigger mistake was separating him into three forms for no reason..

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On October 23, 2017 at 4:44 PM, Blue Blood said:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-23-sonic-mania-and-its-impact-on-the-future-of-the-sonic-series

Some insight into the series at the moment. Nakamura openly talks about at the subsets of fans as though they're all different and can't all appreciate the same games, which is very irritating to hear.

I've summarised some of the key points below:

  • He's not surprised by Mania's success because he knows "people like 2D games because they're easy to get in to".
  • It was interesting to see Mania get the reception it got.
  • "From the team's perspective, we're still going to be making 3D games for the audience that likes that style of Sonic - when we see the reactions that Mania got, the entire team sat down and thought it was really interesting, and we should break down what people liked about Mania, and in the future - when we build our 3D games - see what essence we can take from Sonic Mania and put into a 3D world, to give people what they're looking for and that they've found in Sonic Mania."
  • Forces started many years before Mania.
  • Iizuka was the only one from Sonic Team really involved in Mania. However, he was feeding back to Sonic Team telling them to include things from Mania in Forces (like the Drop Dash, I guess?).
  • The Avatar is aimed at engaging kids, and Forces as a whole is targeted at the modern/younger audience.
  • "From a reverse standpoint, we wanted to reintroduce classic Sonic to fans of the modern games - and maybe bring our group of very divided fans together."
  • Shadow is there in the story and playable  in Forces to appeal to the Adventure fans.
  • He clarifies that a new Nintendo hardware version was planned before they knew anything tangible about the Switch. The Switch was different to what they were expecting in the end and it threw them into a bit of a panic.
  • He wants to make a Samba Di Amigo game for the Switch.

I'm really please to see that they're looking at the reasons why Mania was so well-received across the board, but I won't believe that Sonic Team will take the rigth steps forward until I actually see it. People don't like 2D Sonic because it's easy; people like Mania because it's really bloody good in every way. The game has a a very strong direction with it's physics and level design that create a fun and satisfying experience for veterans and casual players alike. It's a game that can appeal to various subsets simply through it's quality and well thought out design. Forces goes on to specifically target individual groups and subsets without going to much effort to deliver a good gameplay experience. It appeals only to a specifically targeted audience and manages to turn off a lot of other fans. They want to bring the fans together? Forces is absolutely the wrong way to do it.

Also yes please to a new Samba Di Amigo game.

What are you talkin about son? He's right. 2D games are easy to not only produce but people are drawn to them more.

And yeah, the games are piss poor easy too. That is why more of the casual audience loves Mania more than the old games for that reason.

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Not sure if people are more drawn to 2d games, generally speaking.
Pretty sure the most main stream and best selling games are GTA, Fifa, Uncharted, Tombraider, Madden, Mass Effect, Assasin's creed, that sort of kidney. All 3d games, with only New Super Mario bros being a 2d succes story.
2d games are mostly delegated to Cell phone games, indy games and the odd Nintendo game.

2d games might be popular with the internet crowd super geeks, but let's face it, we're not the mega crowds that gamecompanies are aiming for.

Of course making a 2d game like Mania is still a good idea. Low risk, easy profit. Worst case scenerio it still adds to a positive imago and relation to your customers.
But a Sonic Mania is never going to become the earth shattering succes they're so desperatly looking for. Of course neither will 3d Sonic, with the clunky way Sonic Team is making those. But that's a diffrent story more related to their design direction then the virtue of 3d itself.

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I think that's a fair argument.  Not every game needs to be AAA; you can make a few shorter or more easily-developed games with a lower budget to keep the character (whoever it might be) in the public eye.  Well, I say that, but I'm pretty sure the various big developers do actually think that every game needs to be AAA...

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3 hours ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

But a Sonic Mania is never going to become the earth shattering succes they're so desperatly looking for. 

I think the problem with saying that is Sonic Mania being an earth-shattering success is literally what just happened. For fifteen minutes Sonic was actually mainstream again. People not only liked it, they were actually allowed to like it. And it could've been kept up if only Mania hadn't been immediately succeeded by Forces.

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