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Sonic 4 is Sonic's Last Chance says Wired


Shaddix Leto Croft

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So wired says Sonic 4 is Sonic's last chance now where have I heard that phase before (looks at Sega Forums)

I'll post the first page but click on the link for both pages at the bottom

Sonic wasn’t always the beaten-up shell of a hedgehog he is today. When Sega launched the first Sonic the Hedgehog game on its 16-bit Genesis console in 1991, the action game was a huge hit. Sega positioned Sonic as its answer to Nintendo’s Mario series, backed with a massive marketing blitz.

Sonic was the new hotness: He ran across the game screen with blazing speed and had a too-cool-for-school attitude that any mascot needed in the early ’90s. Kids and core gamers alike ate it up.

What they discovered beyond the marketing was that Sonic the Hedgehog was one of the best platform games on the market. The levels were cleverly designed with lots of secrets, and players learned that they had to manage Sonic’s blazing speed with precision, lest he slam into an enemy and grind to a screeching halt. The result was a risk-reward system that forced players to use momentum to their advantage.

Sega cranked out several well-received Sonic games for 16-bit systems, but when the game made its belated leap to 3-D in 1999, Sonic lost his way. The character remains a popular mascot and lucrative cash cow for Sega — Sonic Unleashed, the latest game in the series, sold nearly 2.5 million copies even with a Metacritic ranking in the low 60s — but the quality of the games has dropped like a rock over the last decade.

Sega has announced two new Sonic games this year. The downloadable Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is a return to old-school 2-D mechanics, and the Wii game Sonic Colors continues the 3-D style. Since fans have largely given up on the 3-D games being worthwhile, they’ve pinned their hopes on Sonic 4. As the first new 2-D Sonic for home game machines since 1994, it’s what fans have been asking for. If Sega can’t get it right this time, we might as well abandon all hope.

Early red flags indicate Sonic 4 isn’t quite shaping up. Sega said last month that it would delay the game to “allow for more careful focus on the design of each level and to provide additional polish.” In its current state, Sonic 4 doesn’t look like it will buck the trend. A series of videos that showed off the whole game long before its release date revealed that it was on the short track to mediocrity.

The game’s developer, Dimps, seems to have at least gotten one thing right by keeping the design simple. Sonic is the only playable character in the game, unlike many other titles that became bogged down with extraneous playable characters.

Unfortunately, it seems like all the other problems of the 3-D Sonic games may remain.

Sonic Adventure: Beginning of the End

Sonic Adventure may have wowed the world over with its impressive

back when it launched on the Dreamcast. But today, the game is seen as the beginning of Sonic’s decline. Sonic Adventure was the progenitor of all the problems that plague Sonic to this day.

While previous Sonic games on the Sega Genesis had added playable characters other than Sonic, the alternate choices were two characters that were actually quite similar to the hedgehog: Tails the fox and Knuckles the echidna. Tails could fly and Knuckles could climb up walls, but their respective abilities didn’t change the game design in any way other than allowing them to reach hidden areas where Sonic couldn’t go.

Sonic Adventure took the idea much further. The game introduced unique levels, new game mechanics and many more characters, each with its own storyline. Every one besides Sonic played terribly. Lengthy story sequences proved boring, and the other characters’ controls ranged from unpolished to completely broken. The most maligned: Big the Cat, whose levels consisted entirely of fishing — as if Sega were trying to find the thing that would fit in least with Sonic.

http://www.wired.com.../2010/06/sonic- Came across this article from cute fluffy kittens

Your thoughts on this article(of pure hate that how i see it)

Edited by Crash
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People having been saying '___ is Sonic's last chance. NEVER AGAIN' for years now and not much has happened at all. :\ There are also plenty of game franchises in way worse states than Sonic the Hedgehog is right now in my opinion, let me tell you.

I stopped paying attention to articles like this a long fucking long time ago. I encourage others to do the same.

Edited by Chooch
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People have been saying things like this for years now. Sonic isn't going anywhere as of right now and it's going to stay that way. The reason they create a ton of Sonic games every year is because they make Sega money.

Edited by Future
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It's been Sonic's "last chance" since, probably as far back as Adventure, and every while the "point of decline" keeps getting pushed farther back. Get with the times dude, no one gives a shit no more.

Edited by Black Spy
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I stopped paying attention to articles like this a long fucking long time ago. I encourage others to do the same.

Totally agree. I stopped reading these ever since I read an IGN article that proclaimed the franchise was beginning to lose its way at Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which as we all know is regarded as being one of the best in the franchise. Their reasons? "Ramps that shoot you off to nowhere." (Uh...what? What ramps? Did we play the same game?) And as if that wasn't enough to make it lose credibility, they began going on about how 16-bit Sonic games were all about SPEED SPEED SPEED SPEED!!!1111!!!! I seriously want to slap the people who say that.

Edited by Speederino
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Every game will be Sonic's "last chance" until he either picks himself up or dies for good. I'm as tired of that phrase as I am of "roots" and "true fan".

It's funny the difference in attitudes, tho', regarding 4 and Colors. They say people have given up on 3D Sonic and are putting their hopes on Sonic 4, but around here I see more interest in Colors and Sonic 4 almost being forgotten. It may just be because Colors has just been announced and Sonic 4 was leaked a while back, but it's interesting nonetheless.

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What if Colours is sheer perfection and then 4 is abysmal. Or vice versa?

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Sonic 06 will be Sonic's last chance!

Sonic Unleashed will be Sonic's last chance!

Sonic 4 will be Sonic's last chance!

Sonic Colors will be Sonic's last chance!

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I wonder what a Sonic has to do exactly, to redeem himself.

It's not the '90s anymore, enthusiasm for platformers doesn't exist like it did in the '90s, and Sega doesn't have its own console. What is the highest Sonic can reach for. Unanimous fan praise, or straight 10s from critics? What people really expect is a return to classic fame, but Sonic can't do that anymore.

I think Sonic's in a good place right now. He's got this new style, it's fairly well liked, and it doesn't fail hard like previous experiments. I think in order to be a fair critic of Sonic you have to realize his circumstances. It doesn't have to do with play style or even good games, he's not going to find his '90s fame anytime soon.

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This phrase has no effect on anyone, it never has and never will. Bad reviews about Sonic games tend to be ignored by most of the community and the games sell regardless. I bought Sonic Heroes when it was the last chance, I bought Sonic 06 when it was the last chance, I bought Unleashed Wii and PS3 when it was the last chance and when Sonic 4 is released in a few months time, i'll be buying on release.

I hate these articles with a passion <_<

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The same bandwagonry as always. Everything is the last chance, everything is the worst game yet, the games themselves are retroactively getting worse ('The series started going downhill at Shadow, no wait, Heroes, no wait, Adventure 2, no wait, Adventure, no wait, Sonic Knuckles') and the handheld and/or 'good' games don't exist when it comes to series review time, which is every time they write anything about Sonic.

I wonder when we're going to reach 'Sonic was never good' levels. I guess it's inevitable considering 'general opinion' on the Internet seems to be whatever /v/ was saying two or so years ago.

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These days Sonic strikes me as a concept ahead of its time, only it's poorly executed. Let's see if I can explain this:

Exhibit A

The industry journalists seem utterly bewildered by this game's success. Clearly they just don't get it as it doesn't appeal to them or isn't designed the way they think it should be designed.

Despite my initial revulsion at this game selling better than, y'know, good games, eventually I realised that it offers a form of entertainment that other videogames don't currently offer, the concept is simple enough and mainstream enough to appeal to a mass market and the design of the game is simple enough to pick up and play.

Does that remind you of anyone?

I suspect the hardcore gamer crowd gets so confused by Sonic nowadays because it's not remotely hardcore in design. In fact it never was, even as far back as the original Sonic: the franchise has always offered a far simpler experience compared to even Mario to the market. S3&K is a particularly good example: its gameplay was casual before the concept of "casual gaming" existed: dip into it, have some fun, make a little progress, then switch it off and come back later to play some more. Nevermind that the more hardcore folk tried to blast through the whole game in one sitting. :P

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While I agree that both classic and modern Sonic gameplay is extremely unique, and such a characteristic has been partly to blame for the confusion that both gamers and developers emanate when trying to figure this series out and critique it accordingly, I wouldn't necessarily classify the series as casual.

There's a great essay about that here, but to be brief, aside from accessability in controls, casual games focus highly on extreme positive reinforcement, short-term goals, and tons of feedback; Small actions like giving a chef an order or cleaning a table are rewarded with tons and tons of points and visual and audio fanfare, off-setting the already-downplayed negative consequences of losing. On the other hand, deadly enemies and obstacles, a stricter scoring system, a lack of tutorials, larger goals such as travelling through levels and defeating bosses, and harsher consequences for failure such as having to restart the game altogether are hardcore gameplay hallmarks and far more in line with how Sonic games function.

So Sonic, at least by this article's parameters, is probably more of a 'hardcore' franchise than a 'casual' one. He's not Battletoads hardcore, sure, but hardcore doesn't necessarily mean extremely difficult to play and master.

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Im going to look at this as more in the reviewers/ and people who really don't know Sonic's eyes. Also buisness wise. You can bash on my theory but heres what I get.

I know were all Sonic's mega fans. And yes even alot of us like Sonic 06 but the majority don't. Same with the werehog idea ect. Reason? People don't like how Silver and other new characters came in. If Sega changes the way Sonic was from the gen's area or even the Adventure others aren't going to like it.

Many reviewers like how Advance was and Rush. They recieved good scores cause it was straight Sonic 2D and thats what people think (Like pacman with his game) that Sonic should just stick with 2D.

I spoke to many people from school, and they said the same thing. "If Sega can't make a good 2D game. How can they ever think of making Sonic big again? They started out in 2D. So they better not screw this up.

In the past few years, Sonic hasn't been getting the big sales numbers that Adventure/Advance and the Gen's Sonic games for this reason. With werehogs and other gimmicks, its not going to work if they keep doing this. Sonic All Stars racing didn't do well at all in sale's wise. Even Sonic 06 didn't hit the million point after all these years. Adventure got to the million mark in a few months.

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The people who say "This is Sonic's last chance" are like those people you see at fun fairs who stand with sandwich boards that say "The end is coming." Every year theres a new one, they all say the same thing, yet every year the fair comes to town. Some people like it, and some people don't.

Sonic 4 will come out, some people will like it, some people won't. Some people who don't like it will attempt to kick up a fuss by coming back with their favourite moans.

* Sonic is dead.

* Sonic has died.

* I quit the fanbase.

* Here is why Sonic 4 sucked.

* Here is my really really angry rant that I wrote last year when I announced that I would quit the series but I'm back again, other than my best friend on MSN does anyone remember me?

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What if Colours is sheer perfection and then 4 is abysmal. Or vice versa?

Clearly you weren't paying attention. Colo(u)rs CAN'T be any good at all, let alone perfect, because it's in [gasp] THREE-DEE !!! And ALL Sonic fans KNOW that NONE of the 3D games are any good at all, even though that sneaky Sonic Adventure tried to pull the killer whale over our eyes (and heads).

Apparently I'm not a Sonic fan. Silly of me to think all these years that I was a fan, just because I liked Sonic in nearly all of his games. Mind you, I'm not saying that there's not room for improvement - in some cases MAJOR improvement - but I've had fun with all the non-GameGear games except Spinball and the SH1 GBA port. (Yes, I even had a lot of fun with Sonic 06, although I regret never getting to play the game it could have been if they'd finished it BEFORE they sold it.)

By their definition, Sonic 4 has the potential to be good, but I suspect it will turn out to be a grave betrayal of all the fans' hopes as SEGA rapes the memories of the faithful by pretending to put out a classic game that . . . oh, I'm going to say it will have too many boosters but not be fast-fast-fast like the Genesis games. Honestly, I wonder sometimes if anyone ever PLAYED the Genesis games. GHZ might have been fast-fast-fast, but that'd get you killed in short order in Marble Zone. In other words, as of the second Zone in the very first game, you had to do a fair amount of pause and timing. That was where I first got hooked, on Sonic's foot tapping as he insisted that he wanted to simply dive on in to the lava.

BTW, that was my take on their probable opinion; I expect to enjoy Sonic 4 same as all the others. I think part of my 'problem' is that I'm no good at video games in general, so I go into the game expecting to die a lot and thus I'm not so bothered when I can't master the game in ten seconds and beat it in an hour. My main gripe with the most recent games is that they ARE pushing the fast-fast-fast angle, and there's no more seeking out hidden 1Ups and alternate, even if useless, pathways. That and I LIKE playing as other characters, although I'm perfectly willing to make them completely optional for the sake of the people who want to ignore them.

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*inserts Picardo facepalm picture that I need to find*

Oh, boy, another one of those clichéd and crappy "Sonic's Last Chance" "articles." Now, where have I read and heard THESE before? *rolls eyes*

Sonic. Does. Not. Need. Saving.

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I really want these two games to get high marks upon release so I can laugh at the [trolls] who keep saying that Sonic 4 is his last chance.

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LOL.

This is Sonic's last time.

*next year*

This IS Sonic's last chance.

I'm getting the impression that Critics and trolls think the Sonic games are bad, but they still buy them because at the end of the day....they can't get enough of Sonic.

Every Year this same article is made [by various people] The game is released and nobody cares and people say "If he screws up next time...its OVER"

Its hilarious really.

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Wow, you guys just don't seem to appreciate the comedic gold this guy just parroted from several years ago. I mean seriously, what's not to laugh about here? He's just asking for use to bust out laughing at the article. :D

In any case, how in the hell is Sonic 4 his last chance when Colors is on its way? And his fans are giving up on him? Okay, a lot have, but lest we take a look outside the internet we'd find that other people couldn't give half a shit so long as they enjoy his games.

Boy the people making these articles sure love to sensationalize shit, don't they? :lol:

"If he doesn't get it right this time, we might as well give up..." These guys are just as stubborn as the fanbase is with that goddamned Sonic Cycle. They've been saying this since when, ShTH or Sonic 06 right? And it's just been repeating. :rolleyes:

EDIT: After reading further, this one part caught my eye laughing:

Although Sega said that 2008’s Sonic Unleashed would mark a return to Sonic’s roots, it later unveiled the Werehog, a creature Sonic transformed into during the game’s nighttime sequences. These levels turned Unleashed into a beat ‘em-up similar to God of War.

I call some serious bullshit on the bold (and practically everything else in that quote).

Sega said, several times if I remember right, that Sonic Unleashed wasn't meant to take Sonic back to its roots. They said it once on their main blog at least, commenting further that they wanted to take him beyond the roots (even tho the werehog didn't accomplish that).

Unleashed was made to accomplish a sense of speed when playing as Sonic, which came juxtaposed with the werehog's slower combat gameplay against the advice of the European and American divisions of Sega. While I don't expect whoever wrote this article to know that detail about the werehog, the fact that Sega has mentioned that Unleashed wasn't intended to take Sonic "back to his roots" (seriously, the most overused phrase ever nowadays) just shows you how much these guys pay attention to details. I mean this is article number what? I stopped counting at over 9000 of them.

Oh well. Let the guy blow some steam. It's not like Sonic really has that much to worry about compared to when ShTH an Sonic 06 was around, right guys? (and he still broke over a million with ShTH) B)

Edited by ChaosSupremeSonic
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I think that whole "Sonic Team was bullshitting about roots" sentiment cropped up when Hashimoto mentioned the 2D perspective and how it would be a bone thrown to the 2D fans, (along with the hype he personally generated about this being the best Sonic game ever); It kinda was since those sections had the most platforming, but nevertheless I think the fandom just took it and ran with it, setting themselves up for disappointment over a feature that even Sonic Team admitted was relatively minimal.

I get this same feeling from all of the Sonic '06 hype too. Aside from the official website, and said statement on there is dubious, I literally can't find any source where Sonic Team themselves were imposing a back-to-roots theme. =/

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Then it's really their fault for setting themselves up with false expextations. Problem is, like you said, they take it and run with it, and end up blaming the developers on something that was never mentioned.

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In the past few years, Sonic hasn't been getting the big sales numbers that Adventure/Advance and the Gen's Sonic games for this reason. With werehogs and other gimmicks, its not going to work if they keep doing this. Sonic All Stars racing didn't do well at all in sale's wise. Even Sonic 06 didn't hit the million point after all these years. Adventure got to the million mark in a few months.

I'd say thats more to do with a gradual lack of advertisement on Sega's part. Sega's other franchises also seem to suffer from this.

Granted, I'm pretty sure Heroes trounced the numbers that Adventure and Advance brought in. Unleashed, Shadow and SATSR actually did alright. And well every knows how well the M&S games do.

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I will put this out there that, though I still think the article is BS, saying this game is the last chance for the franchise is different from all of the other times the ideas has been parroted around.

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I will put this out there that, though I still think the article is BS, saying this game is the last chance for the franchise is different from all of the other times the ideas has been parroted around.

How so exactly? In a sense that this may actually be Sonic's last chance or in a sense that there's something else at play here?

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