What are some missed opportunities in the Sonic franchise?

[Mountaindewandsprite 50]

What are some elements that have been purposefully left out that seems to be a missed opportunity? Personally, I think some missed opportunities in the franchise was forgetting/excluding certain characters *cough* Fang, Bean, and Bark *cough*, not utilizing established characters to their full potential, and some level designs. What do ya'll think?

[DreamSaturn 394]

There's not a single Sonic game that doesn't have at least some wasted opportunities. Sonic Generations in particular has a lot of that. Great of a game as it is, it feels incredibly hollow and empty going back to it today. Look at those cutscenes where Sonic and Tails reflect on Green Hill and Chemical Plant, those are the only times something like that happens. They could've so easily come up with some witty dialogue, both paying tribute to (and lampooning the more absurd aspects of) the franchise. Like, after Seaside Hill, Tails could comment, "I remember it being a lot easier to keep up with you back then, Sonic!" and after Rooftop Run Sonic could say "I sure am glad it was day time!"

 

[Blacklightning 10998]

I'll just get straight to the point.

Someone saw this dude, with stretchy arms that grapple onto things, and for some reason decided he needed to play like a generic God of War clone rather than an analogue for freeform Spiderman swinging, and that just boggles my fucking mind. Nobody expected the Werehog to approach Boost speeds but at the very least this would still have made movement fun.

Honourable mention goes to Forces letting you make custom characters but for some reason only allowing them to use guns. Honestly are there even that many OCs that wield arm cannons?

[Mountaindewandsprite 50]

1 hour ago, Blacklightning said:

Honourable mention goes to Forces letting you make custom characters but for some reason only allowing them to use guns. Honestly are there even that many OCs that wield arm cannons?

Yeah. Not to mention the limited number of species (compared to the concept art) and every species having the same body type. Seriously, a bear should not have Sonic's height and shape. Vector's is more appropriate.

[Tarnish 596]

Having a coherent world and universe where stuff (including characters) doesn't change every damn time...

[Miragnarok 1153]

Mania Plus didn’t have enough changes in extant stages. Maybe just dig up some unused stuff to add to the zones. Also maybe give Heavy Magician different forms when fighting Mighty and Ray,  who should have also gotten more exclusive acts. 

[Phos 1091]

My mind immediately jumps to All Stars Racing Transformed.  And no, not the subject of including this character or that, or the flag man from Outrun (though they should have), it has to do with Sonic's Japanese voice actor's (Jun'ichi Kanemaru) other longtime role: Hayato Kazami, the protagonist of Cyber Formula.  A little side note, fans of Jun'ichi Kanemaru should probably check out Cyber Formula as he is basically just doing the Sonic voice, and there are actually of lot of releases in the series.  OK, so what is the missed opportunity?  For most of Cyber Formula, Hayato is driving the Super Asurada:

Yeah, a six wheeled transforming open wheel racing car, but somehow Danica Patrick ended up driving that game's six wheeled transforming open wheeled car.  

And I've got another one!  But it's not the most straightforward one.  A while back I actually thought that a character creator could be very useful for a Sonic game, but not for the single player.  My idea was more along the lines of Sonic in 3D but actually, it would create an opportunity for a tribes-esque Capture the Flag multiplayer mode and a character creator would suit that well.  Interesting coincidence, Tribes Ascend is my go to example of a developer not understanding what made their game fun or why people liked it.  They seemed to think it was an usual FPS game where they had actually created a digital sport and the goofy dialog they wrote for the two sides really resonated with the audience.  They kept trying to balance it like it was just a weird FPS, and the made it worse by introducing cosmetics that had nothing to do with the already in game factions.  

[Sonic Fan J 1800]

I find myself strongly agreeing with @Blacklightning with some of the missed opportunities with the Werehog. To me though that was not the only missed opportunity with Unleashed though as Knuckles would have been perfect to appear as a minor antagonist trying to get his hands on the emeralds to restore the planet himself to undue the mess that Sonic let happen with his typically recklessness. I could even see Shadow playing a similar role but representing G.U.N. in a comical twist reaction to a hedgehog bringing Eggman the Chaos Emeralds to power a giant space laser that shatters the planet.

Asides from that I think Mania severely mishandled every opportunity it had to better celebrate Amy as a part of the classic series, as well as at least some hint of the Chaotix in their original iterations.

[Almar 269]

Not letting you join Eggman in Shadow the Hedgehog and meaning it.

Also, going through the trouble of having a sorta-Legion of Doom for Sonic Forces yet have little actual mystery over it.

7 hours ago, Tarnish said:

Having a coherent world and universe where stuff (including characters) doesn't change every damn time...

Sonic Team tries to have their cake and eat it too. Bring in characters like Chaos and allude to past events for fanservice but also do what Mario does where the characters are "actors" (as Miyamoto put it). Introduce ridiculous retcons for the past games (hello Two-Worlds) instead of just outright saying they're rebooting the series (actually, I suspect Sonic Unleashed was considered to be a reboot considering the minimal cast, new world, different tone).

[DabigRG 1894]

I considered having a thread like this here since it'd be relatively easy for people to come up with stuff, so good on you for actually making one.

I feel like  its safe to say a number of games that have come out, particularly lately, have run into this issue for a variety of reasons. I guess I'll just start of by citing my old post about Cream&Cheese being in Forces, since they could've had a hand in giving Tails(and maybe Omega) a slightly more fleshed out subplot and added to the gradual reveal behind the returning villains' presence through Chaos.

[Mountaindewandsprite 50]

11 hours ago, Tarnish said:

Having a coherent world and universe where stuff (including characters) doesn't change every damn time...

I agree. The "two worlds" doesn't really help either.

[DabigRG 1894]

The Deadly Six having at least little more collective backstory, as well as the Lost Hex.

[blueblur98 1765]

hyper sonic showing up once and never again.

[Stephen Rodriguez 10]

The franchise not having a consisent world and gameplay style (the most common issue with the franchise), Amy being left out in Mania, the Lost Hex and the Deadly Six not having a backstory, not enough original levels in Mania, not enough DLC in Gens, not making Tails brave in Forces, and not making both Chaos and Fake Shadow bosses in Forces. I think that's it for me, really.

[Miragnarok 1153]

31 minutes ago, Stephen Rodriguez said:

The franchise not having a consisent world and gameplay style (the most common issue with the franchise), Amy being left out in Mania, the Lost Hex and the Deadly Six not having a backstory, not enough original levels in Mania, not enough DLC in Gens, not making Tails brave in Forces, and not making both Chaos and Fake Shadow bosses in Forces. I think that's it for me, really.

Also, the Wisps needed to be explained in Lost World and onwards, rather than leaving that to mobile games and comics.

[DabigRG 1894]

27 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Also, the Wisps needed to be explained in Lost World and onwards, rather than leaving that to mobile games and comics.

What's weird is that doesn't Omochao/Tails/whatever teach you about the items in that game anyway?

[Fire-N-Space 66]

Sonic Chronicles and Sonic Battle not getting a sequel, Zeena not being playable in Team Sonic Racing, choosing Amy over Elise in Sonic 06 wasn't capitalize on, Sonic Boom Wii U not getting finish in time, Sonic Boom's show using Amy so little and trying to hard to keep her affection for Sonic from showing and Amy not being in Mania.  

 

[Mountaindewandsprite 50]

Also, some of the casts' elemental powers should be utilized a tad more. Sonic's degree of aerokinesis and his ability to create a tornado. Knuckles has geokinetic abilities and even had a degree of pyrokinetic attacks before Blaze was even thought of, as well as his a Thunder Arrow, which rivals Shadow's Chaos Spear.

[DabigRG 1894]

18 minutes ago, Mountaindewandsprite said:

Also, some of the casts' elemental powers should be utilized a tad more. Sonic's degree of aerokinesis and his ability to create a tornado. Knuckles has geokinetic abilities and even had a degree of pyrokinetic attacks before Blaze was even thought of, as well as his a Thunder Arrow, which rivals Shadow's Chaos Spear.

I was just thinking about this is regards to who should represent the Thunder Shoot on their own.

[Sonictrainer 4411]

Why are these 2 not in the game's story?

[Phos 1091]

20 hours ago, Blacklightning said:

I'll just get straight to the point.

Someone saw this dude, with stretchy arms that grapple onto things, and for some reason decided he needed to play like a generic God of War clone rather than an analogue for freeform Spiderman swinging, and that just boggles my fucking mind. Nobody expected the Werehog to approach Boost speeds but at the very least this would still have made movement fun.

Honourable mention goes to Forces letting you make custom characters but for some reason only allowing them to use guns. Honestly are there even that many OCs that wield arm cannons?

Given the motivation for making the whole mess, I really get the idea that the design of the character was dictated by their desired gameplay, that is, they decided to just copy god of war and then design the character to that concept.  After all, the whole point was to pad out the length of the game, but they were following the letter of the "Sonic only" fan demand with no regard to the intent or motivation, so this happened.  

[Diogenes 39897]

The biggest missed opportunity in the series is and always will be not taking the time to properly implement slope/momentum physics in 3D and develop a gameplay style based around them. SA made an attempt but they couldn't stick the landing, SA2 had some bits remaining but felt like it was moving further away from it, and then by Heroes it was just...gone. All dash pads, slippery acceleration, and the god-damned boost from there out. I'm sure they're not the easiest mechanics to work with, but when they do work they're so good, but they just...gave up on it.

25 minutes ago, Mountaindewandsprite said:

Also, some of the casts' elemental powers should be utilized a tad more. Sonic's degree of aerokinesis and his ability to create a tornado. Knuckles has geokinetic abilities and even had a degree of pyrokinetic attacks before Blaze was even thought of, as well as his a Thunder Arrow, which rivals Shadow's Chaos Spear.

Having everyone throwing around generic elements is so lame though...

[Phos 1091]

4 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Having everyone throwing around generic elements is so lame though...

Plus "Sonic Wind" sounds like a fart joke.  

[Mountaindewandsprite 50]

13 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Having everyone throwing around generic elements is so lame though...

Hence why I said "some of the cast". And it's not like Shadow's DBZ-esque chaos attacks are any less lame.

[MadmanRB 140]

Sonic 06.

Seriously just a few more years in the oven and sega forcing deadlines and no development allocation.

I mean 06 would have still had some serious flaws like princess Elise but at least it could have been saved a little with good gameplay.