What are some missed opportunities in the Sonic franchise?

[Guergy]

I know I am beating a dead horse but Sonic Boom feels like one big missed opportunity, it could had been a great spinoff series if weren't mismanagement and miscommunication on the part of everyone. 

[DabigRG]

Oh shoot, I forgot about this thread!

 

Um....oh, E-123!

I always thought it was super odd and a missed opportunity that Omega, being an Eggman robot  dedicated to fighting Eggman and his robots out of ego-driven vengeance, doesn't really show up outside of Team Dark as sort of a weird Wild Card during some of Sonic's [comparatively] lower key adventures.  

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

On 11/9/2018 at 10:31 PM, 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?

This so much.

Next to SA1 being a foundation for the 3D series in general, this is the 2nd biggest missed opportunity that comes immediately to mind.

On 11/14/2018 at 8:41 PM, Tatters said:

Hey remember Chao gardens?

Remember how good that part was in the Sonic games? It boggles me why Sega won't let it be a game on the google playstore or appstore. 

This is another one. I'm not even particularly crazy about them but from a practical standpoint it just made a lot of business sense to keep that going. Easy money.

[Dr. Detective]

Dude. Imagine a Sonic game where going through the hub, Sonic ran and jumped around the place like Spider-Man did in the new PS4 game?

Holy shit dude... So fast. So cool. Much fun.

 

[Sonic Fan J]

While I haven't played it (open world games bore me to no end) I'm with you on that @Dr. Detective Mike. The first time I felt that way about how Sonic's movement needed to be more dynamic though was watching my brother play the early hours of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. When I heard we were getting parkour in Lost World I was so excited as my mind went back to the Sonic CD opening and then disappointment hit like a ton bricks when I saw what we got. Honestly, at this point, I'd love to see a Sonic game that's a dream collaboration between Platinum Games (gameplay), Arc System Works (graphics and art design), and Atlus (Story and Characters). Totally dreaming obviously, but nothing wrong with that in a franchise of wasted opportunities is there?

[DabigRG]

Where was Big during Shadow's Game? That's an interaction that we've never gotten, to my knowledge.

[Austroid]

Sonic X had a few stories that would be great in the games.

The Egg Moon seemed to be hinted at near the end of Colors, with the shot of the moon being half mechanical. (what was the deal with that anyway?) It would be a neat concept having almost every citizen of the world become mindless minions to Eggman; whom he'd use to rebuild the world into the Eggman Empire, and Sonic would have a tougher time fighting back.

Also the whole Murasia saga was pretty neat as well. Eggman finding a lost continent that sits above a volcanic hot spot, that if disturbed would cause a world-wide eruption and end modern civilization. After which he'd build his empire over the ruins of the world, which all sounds so badass honestly. (Granted it would be similar to Unleashed but still...)

[DabigRG]

2 hours ago, Austroid said:

Sonic X had a few stories that would be great in the games.

The Egg Moon seemed to be hinted at near the end of Colors, with the shot of the moon being half mechanical. (what was the deal with that anyway?) 

Was it? 

Anyway, I believe Mr. Iuzuka did say that the Eggmoon itself did technically happen in the games at one point.

 

Actually, I was wondering why they never explicitly followed up on the moon getting sprayed with NegaWisp energy. I was under the impression that that's what caused the Timeeater to form.

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

On ‎11‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 10:09 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Dude. Imagine a Sonic game where going through the hub, Sonic ran and jumped around the place like Spider-Man did in the new PS4 game?

Holy shit dude... So fast. So cool. Much fun.

 

Yes! I am 110% convinced that this, in much the same fashion as the Sonic CD opening as @Sonic Fan J mentioned, is the path forward for 3D Sonic. There is a way to design it such that you have primarily open world gameplay but still with goals and contexts that have the classic point A to point B gameplay. I've thought about this for so long, I've got the basic concept essentially sketched out in its entirety. The one thing that honestly truly kills me about this franchise, is that they have forgotten that at one point they really wanted to accomplish this but didnt yet have the technology. In the time leading up to SA1, it is plain that Naka and company envisioned something similar to this, but couldn't do it with 1996 tech.

They have long since abandoned it and dont seem to even be thinking about it. It's honestly driving me nuts as a lifelong sonic fan. This is the single thing that in my honest to God opinion can almost instantly drive sonic back to great heights and neutralize much of his dark past, if this is accomplished. It would be a huge success, putting 3D sonic in a context that finally works for what he is. It would kill.

It seriously hurts that neither SEGA or sonic team is seeing this. It's like watching a horror movie scene, over and over again. I think the only thing keeping me around at this point, is curiosity to see if they catch on to this idea, or if someone in the community can convince them of it (Whitehead). Mania has given me hope on some level that a path forward to this is possible. They had no idea that Mania would be successful and had obviously forgotten why it the classic gameplay was appealing at all, until Whitehead reminded them with their own concept. I think someone with a strong enough vision can do this, and then a game like this can be put into the plans. 

 

Edit: Just to make a late addition to this post. Isn't it commonly discussed how fun it is in the classic 2D gameplay to use the momentum physics and explore the many different paths in various levels? Everyone who loves the classic games knows how fun it is to experiment with a momentum carrying object like Sonic, scaling through the levels as if you're in a Tony Hawk type game, finding new paths and then perfecting your movements through the landscape. These make the games not only fun but also lasting, high replay value.  

Well, what do you think would happen if you put this style similarly contextualized in an open 3D environment? Instead of designing narrow, linear paths, design a fully open, 3D environment with many intertwining paths! If you follow his early interviews, Hirokazu Yasuhara thought this way when he designed the original trilogy levels; even though they were limited to a 2D plane, he gathered inspiration by designing them as complete environments, just projected flatly onto the 2D plane (said this himself). Just look the level maps of Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Putting this in a fully 3D context would give you more potential to expand Sonic's gameplay than any other style, bar none. And within this, you still have the opportunity to make the gameplay more linear in parts when you need to.

Ugh, this is drool inducing. Next bullsh*t game gets released instead, count me out for good (lol, j/k).

 

[Scape]

Amy Rose should've had Old Man Owl's role in the Sonic OVA

[DabigRG]

2 minutes ago, Scape said:

Amy Rose should've had Old Man Owl's role in the Sonic OVA

Being the President's emissary or whatever he was?

[Scape]

22 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Being the President's emissary or whatever he was?

Not necessarily. I mean being a liaison between Sonic's domain and civilization. Being tasked with finding Sonic and watching over the island. I still would've preferred she have a more active role but that would've at least got her in the OVA somehow.

[DabigRG]

3 minutes ago, Scape said:

Being tasked with finding Sonic and/or Tails and watching over their island. I would've still preferred she have a more active role but that would've at least had her in the OVA somehow.

Hm. I suppose.

[Scape]

2 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Hm. I suppose.

Old Man Owl even mistakes Metal for Sonic ffs

[Sonic Fan J]

2 hours ago, Scape said:

Old Man Owl even mistakes Metal for Sonic ffs

Amy's one of my favorites but considering trends with Amy that would follow it's hard to say she wouldn't of. At least with Old Man Owl he had the excuses of bad vision, senility, and being a very daft comic relief. Amy doesn't have those excuses, especially when it's implied that she pretty much has Sonic radar and her if her crush is anywhere near as obsessive as it has been made out to be under no circumstances should she ever mistake anyone for Sonic.

All of that said though, your thoughts on Amy being a liaison between Sonic and more civilized places makes me think she'd make a fun telegraph messenger due to her love of adventure and meeting new people, even if it's a role considered for boys which shouldn't be a problem with an energetic tomboy like her.

[Gumbit]

I think the new wasted potential will be the sonic movie .

[DabigRG]

28 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

Amy's one of my favorites but considering trends with Amy that would follow it's hard to say she wouldn't of. At least with Old Man Owl he had the excuses of bad vision, senility, and being a very daft comic relief.]

She does have one of those things, to be a little fair here.

19 minutes ago, Gumbit said:

I think the new wasted potential will be the sonic movie .

That's kinda movies in general, dude.

[Your Vest Friend]

If we could get some interaction between Bowser Jr and Charmy, that would be golden. We don't even need the parental figures involved, having Bowser Jr, prince of the Koopas and with armies of resources at his disposal, fall foul of a skint bee just because the skint bee plays detective and is arguably more persistent than he is would make a great dynamic. 

[Multikaris]

Given the sheer number of missed opportunities fans will eventually pull a 180 and declared they would be bad ideas either way, it’s hard to pick one, but...

 

What about IDW making an alternative Sonic comic series, based more on Archie? Call it Sonic ‘93, akin to Batman ‘66. 

 

Also, the 3DS version of Lost World having a virtually identical story to the console version, other than the Zeti flying away rather than pulling a Ninja-style Smoke Out (or being baked in lava, in the case of Zavok). Even the previous Dimps conversions tried to make things a little different with the story.

Given the sheer number of missed opportunities fans will eventually pull a 180 and declared they would be bad ideas either way, it’s hard to pick one, but...

 

What about IDW making an alternative Sonic comic series, based more on Archie? Call it Sonic ‘93, akin to Batman ‘66. 

 

Also, the 3DS version of Lost World having a virtually identical story to the console version, other than the Zeti flying away rather than pulling a Ninja-style Smoke Out (or being baked in lava, in the case of Zavok). Even the previous Dimps conversions tried to make things a little different with the story.

Given the sheer number of missed opportunities fans will eventually pull a 180 and declared they would be bad ideas either way, it’s hard to pick one, but...

 

What about IDW making an alternative Sonic comic series, based more on Archie? Call it Sonic ‘93, akin to Batman ‘66. 

 

Also, the 3DS version of Lost World having a virtually identical story to the console version, other than the Zeti flying away rather than pulling a Ninja-style Smoke Out (or being baked in lava, in the case of Zavok). Even the previous Dimps conversions tried to make things a little different with the story.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Miragnarok said:

Given the sheer number of missed opportunities fans will eventually pull a 180 and declared they would be bad ideas either way, it’s hard to pick one, but...

 

What about IDW making an alternative Sonic comic series, based more on Archie? Call it Sonic ‘93, akin to Batman ‘66. 

 

Also, the 3DS version of Lost World having a virtually identical story to the console version, other than the Zeti flying away rather than pulling a Ninja-style Smoke Out (or being baked in lava, in the case of Zavok). Even the previous Dimps conversions tried to make things a little different with the story.

 

What do you mean?

[Multikaris]

55 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

What do you mean?

For which one?

 

For Sonic ‘93, I imagined something akin to keeping the SatAM feeling and tone alive, but adding newer concepts and characters and adjusting them to fit in. 

[Scape]

Sonic Adventure 2 should've had Amy and Metal Sonic playable in the main story as alternatives to Tails and Eggman.

[Sonic Fan J]

3 hours ago, Scape said:

Sonic Adventure 2 should've had Amy and Metal Sonic playable in the main story as alternatives to Tails and Eggman.

Amy I can understand since she was fairly involved with the story and had a number of places where she could have had her own levels, but Metal Sonic O.o He was enjoyable enough as an unlockable skin in competition mode but he had all of no place in the story.

[Scape]

36 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

Amy I can understand since she was fairly involved with the story and had a number of places where she could have had her own levels, but Metal Sonic O.o He was enjoyable enough as an unlockable skin in competition mode but he had all of no place in the story.

I just figured having 4 characters on one side and 3 on the other would be awkward

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Sonic Fan J said:

Amy I can understand since she was fairly involved with the story and had a number of places where she could have had her own levels, but Metal Sonic O.o He was enjoyable enough as an unlockable skin in competition mode but he had all of no place in the story.

True.

Although, wasn't there a rumor about how he was originally supposed to be the one fighting the Biolizard?

45 minutes ago, Scape said:

I just figured having 4 characters on one side and 3 on the other would be awkward

To be fair, it's not like Amy does much of anything beyond returning to comic relief until the Last Story.