Next Main Game is 30th Anniversary Title, Drop Dash News

[Multikaris]

I wouldn’t mind all the Classic Sonic usage if Modern got to return the favor at least once. 

[Jango]

Well, unless it's a Sonic Mania sequel by the same team, you can count me the fuck out, Iizuka. Without a big shift in direction and production, I won't believe, let alone trust these guys can pull a good game after Forces, and I mean actually good, not okay, not decent, no average. Bets are on: watch the game for the 30th anniversary be a Forces sequel, with more Infinite-im-not-weak and the DeviantAvatart. 

[Multikaris]

13 minutes ago, Jango said:

Well, unless it's a Sonic Mania sequel by the same team, you can count me the fuck out, Iizuka. Without a big shift in direction and production, I won't believe, let alone trust these guys can pull a good game after Forces, and I mean actually good, not okay, not decent, no average. Bets are on: watch the game for the 30th anniversary be a Forces sequel, with more Infinite-im-not-weak and the DeviantAvatart. 

There was Team Sonic Racing, where Classic Sonic only has blink and you'll miss it cameos. The movie has no Classic Sonic either, but BUTTLOADS of its own problems. The IDW comics and the shorts are fine too. As for Boom,... press MODE to pay respects.

[KHCast]

14 hours ago, Marcello said:

But maybe I should be blindly optimistic and take it to mean Modern Sonic games won't be built around the boost anymore and will use the Spin/Drop Dash in future games instead.

You know if they built on Lost Worlds gameplay and tweaked it up, I could see the drop Dash being implemented in 3D.

[Marcello]

45 minutes ago, KHCast said:

You know if they built on Lost Worlds gameplay and tweaked it up, I could see the drop Dash being implemented in 3D.

Is that a threat?

[StaticMania]

Everyone knows the next anniversary title is going to be a Sonic Heroes 2, time to give that style a shot again.

Though if nobody wants that, that's fine too.

[Splash the Otter]

9 hours ago, Jango said:

Bets are on: watch the game for the 30th anniversary be a Forces sequel, with more Infinite-im-not-weak and the DeviantAvatart. 

I actually wouldn't mind that.

9 hours ago, Miragnarok said:

There was Team Sonic Racing, where Classic Sonic only has blink and you'll miss it cameos.

What cameos are those?

[Multikaris]

2 hours ago, Splash the Otter said:

I actually wouldn't mind that.

What cameos are those?

He’s being advertised as an air freshener. And he also makes very small appearances hidden in some levels.

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

11 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Everyone knows the next anniversary title is going to be a Sonic Heroes 2, time to give that style a shot again.

Though if nobody wants that, that's fine too.

I definitely dont want that. And I'm quite positive that a heroes 2 would not be a top priority anyway given that a sonic adventure remake or outright SA3 have more demand and are more likely to happen (not saying they are likely independently of that).

 

Heroes was a fun concept but execution was pretty awful. So I'd rather sonic team focus on establishing an excellent 3D playstyle first (assuming they would actually move away from the boost formula) before making a teamwork game.

19 hours ago, Jango said:

Well, unless it's a Sonic Mania sequel by the same team, you can count me the fuck out, Iizuka. Without a big shift in direction and production, I won't believe, let alone trust these guys can pull a good game after Forces, and I mean actually good, not okay, not decent, no average. Bets are on: watch the game for the 30th anniversary be a Forces sequel, with more Infinite-im-not-weak and the DeviantAvatart. 

I'm trying my best not to be pessimistic but I kind of agree here. I think Sonic Team knows what they should do here now after the reception of Mania, it is very obvious. I can only be confident however when I start to see real evidence of a change in development philosophy. Or something like Whitehead assisting or joining production. Or Yuji Naka coming back to help. Something like that that clearly indicates a different trajectory will get me excited. 

I cant be out because I already was out on forces. Didnt support it. If this is a philosophical sequel to that I'll remain out.

[Razule]

10 minutes ago, UpCDownCLeftCRightC said:

 

Heroes was a fun concept but execution was pretty awful. So I'd rather sonic team focus on establishing an excellent 3D playstyle first (assuming they would actually move away from the boost formula) before making a teamwork game.

That'll be, like, 20 years from now at the rate they make games.

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

2 minutes ago, Razule said:

That'll be, like, 20 years from now at the rate they make games.

Something I sort of think has been happening but have little substantive evidence for...is the idea that Sonic Team has in fact been working on building a new 3D playstyle for sonic for some time. It's hard for me to escape this idea because we have seen some rumblings about this all the way back to lost world in 2013. Many people may not remember now, but Sonic Team was actually quite excited in the time between generations and lost world because they had wanted to go back to a more traditional 3D platforming formula for some time. Both Aaron webber and Iizuka publicly boasted about the playstyle created in lost world before release, thinking that it was getting closer to sonic's momentum based gameplay in 3D. They were at least a bit wrong obviously, but if you read interviews from that time it I'd clear that they did want to do it and even after the game came out and didnt review or sell too well, they still spoke as if they had found a great idea with a lot of potential. Aaron in particular said this verbatim. And it is clear from the production of that game that even though the execution was lacking, they were not cutting corners and seemed interested in returning to a more traditional platforming sonic ala the classic games.

This on top of some of the well sourced rumors that came out about a game being developed around the time of forces that had a completely different engine and gameplay. So what I suspect may have happened is that sonic team has some kind of prototype or concept they had been working out for sonic for sometime but due to the failure of boom and probably due to their lack of confidence in its readiness, they stuck with what they know works well...which is the boost formula.

This has been my theory since 2013 based on many interviews and direct public statements and well sourced rumors I've heard since then. Of course I could be totally wrong but I doubt that to some degree. It just makes total sense that sonic team would explore that kind of direction because theyd really have to be stupid to not do it. Even the media has been commenting on the topic of "does sonic work in 3D?", or "the glory days of 2D" for almost 2 decades now. Of course theyve been thinking about how to recreate that in 3D and Iizuka has said this innumerable times.

 

So assume this is true for a moment: what could possibly change now that all this time has passed and no title like that has seen the light of day? Well...I'd argue that Mania has changed the potential of sonic going forward. Now Soni Team not only has a current example of a sonic game done completepy right...they also now have people around who know exactly how to do it. This is no disrespect to Iizuka who probably knows a great deal about the classic games since he was on the Sonic 3K dev team. But they now have something current to learn from. The only question is, did they learn the correct lessons in order to properly apply some of the fundamental appeal of Mania and translate it into a 3D formula? 

[Sonic's Shoes Blues]

On 6/22/2019 at 10:49 AM, Miragnarok said:

He’s being advertised as an air freshener. And he also makes very small appearances hidden in some levels.

Sumo having to hide him in there almost seems like they're way of saying that they weren't avoid to do more. I can't believe that they wouldn't have wanted to have Classic in there along with a stage like Studiopolis but weren't allowed by Iizuka for possibly the same reason why 2 years later we still have no idea if a Mania sequel is going to happen. I just can't shake the way he was after Generations when he more or less said Classic was going back in the closet despite how positively his return was received.

It's just absolutely bonkers that Mania received no content in TSR, any other publishers would have demanded that if the dev weren't already doing that understanding how that would generate some mainstream buzz but instead the game launched to no hype and no sign of DLC happening, so who would be behind this decision?

[Diogenes]

6 minutes ago, Sonic's Shoes Blues said:

I just can't shake the way he was after Generations when he more or less said Classic was going back in the closet despite how positively his return was received.

Even after Iizuka's involvement with Mania and Classic reappearing in Forces?

There's any number of possible reasons why there isn't any Mania content in TSR, I don't see any reason to jump to thinking it's some kind of grudge on Iizuka's part or whatever. Personally I'd guess it's just because they've decided to define Classic and Modern as separate things and TSR is a Modern Sonic game focused on Modern Sonic things. Sumo slipping in a few Classic Sonics as easter eggs doesn't have to be anything more than that.

[Marcello]

The Classic and Modern split is dumb, because Sonic Team breaks it anyway.  I feel like they have it backwards. I don't want Classic Sonic in the next mainline 3D Sonic game, but I'd love him (And Ray, Mighty, Nack etc) in games like Team Sonic Racing or Mario & Sonic.

[Red Hot Jack]

I don't want Classic Sonic in the next game either tbh, or the Avatar (outside of spin-offs), because honestly the modern canon characters deserve it more. Let's be realistic.

And I'm also sick of classic nostalgia, where is the Adventure/Dreamcast nostalgia? SA1 is 20 years old, in 2021 SA2 will have its big anniversary too, I really want… not SA3, but another Adventure game, or an "Adventure Mania" type of game, with some old zones from those 2 games plus brand new ones. Otherwise just give me a new game, and I really hope there is a new gameplay because I'm sick of the boost one.

So 3 BIG NO by me:

- More Classic nostalgia

- More Classic/Modern crossovers

- More boost gameplay

Just don't give me more of the same like with Forces, give me SOMETHING NEW, please SEGA. Experiment something, you did it with the Wisps and it worked, it can work again.

I really wouldn't mind a new type of power-ups though, or another Mania as well, but as a side project, not the next big one, classic gameplay is really welcome to me but I also want more Modern titles. The split is fine, considering the 2 gameplays don't mesh well with each other, exclusive casts is also an incentive to make the 2 worlds different from one another.

[Plasme]

On 6/21/2019 at 2:04 PM, Tornado said:

Adventure 2 and STH '06 were both new games with new levels and new characters; and the fact that they were anniversary titles was a defining moment of their marketing and development (to the detriment of the latter, of course). Just because it's an anniversary title doesn't mean it's another Generations; especially in the time since Generations itself Sonic Team haven't really done shit anyway.

It's more about every Sonic release since Generations.

Lost World was probably most balanced, it had entirely new levels with some look backs to the past. Boom was original, but a side series and very different to the mainline series.

But aside from them we had Sonic 4 Episode 2 which was better than Episode 1 but still derivative, All Stars Racing Transformed, which reused familiar locations, Mania which was 70% old levels (revamped but still old), Forces which used old locales we've already seen multiple times and Team Sonic Racing which didnt bring much new to the table either and half is reused tracks.

So to be fair, the time of Adventure 2 and 06 is long over. All recent Sonic games, particularly Mania and Forces (both anniversary titles) recycled a lot of content. It would be very surprising if this new game didn't recycle levels considering the past precedent.

[Tornado]

1 minute ago, Plasme said:

All recent Sonic games, particularly Mania and Forces (both anniversary titles)

Those famous Sonic dates, etched in stone amd known by everyone, of August 15th and November 7th.

[StaticMania]

It's not even November 21st.

For shame.

[Wraith]

My big wish for this game is for Sonic's acceleration to work. The other hurdles can be crossed later, but physics and game feel are paramount and need to be be mastered before they move forward with anything else.

I don't really care what past Sonic game the game resembles or who's in it compared to that. Ideally they'd go for something fresh, but I'm tired of classic Sonic iconography either way so if I have to pick an old Sonic game to pull from I hope it's not one of those. 

[SBR2]

On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 2:38 AM, Marco9966 said:

Enough with the anniversary titles! Just make a new game with entirely new levels and new characters except Sonic and Tails and Eggman and Amy

I'm...not entirely sure how you avoid celebrating an anniversary but ok?

Anyway shouldn't this be seen as good news? They aren't going to just fart out a game. They're going to take a couple years to actually give it some development time.

[Diogenes]

6 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

Anyway shouldn't this be seen as good news? They aren't going to just fart out a game. They're going to take a couple years to actually give it some development time.

That's what we thought about Forces.

It's not a bad thing for them to take their time of course but it's not much of an indicator of how the game will eventually turn out.

[Tarnish]

13 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

I'm...not entirely sure how you avoid celebrating an anniversary but ok?

I'm only assuming, but I think he meant don't make another Generations, where it was just a ton of mish-mash of things from previous games thrown together, barely held together with a thin layer of crappy plot.

[Soniman]

Sonic Team could have 100 years to make a game and it'll still probably be a subpar 3 hour experience so I'm not expecting much honestly.

[Wraith]

Some of the best Sonic games have been made in a year or two and some of the worst have been made in 3 or 4. The dev time  doesn't really mean anything until we understand the scale of the project better.

[Plasme]

4 hours ago, Tornado said:

Those famous Sonic dates, etched in stone amd known by everyone, of August 15th and November 7th.

What are you trying to say here? They were both still anniversary games and heavily marketed as such.