Sonic the Hedgehog (X360/PS3): It's a one way track..

Perfect. except that I feel that they should not be exclusive but rather more like Ubisoft. I thought Sega would oust EA from the top 3rd party slot but the fell behind EA, Ubisoft, THQ and Activision... They have really janky rationales for their releases (no VF4 on Xbox? WTF?) and are definitely missing out on teh treasure trove of great master system, genesis, saturn and dreamcast games... sega is adrift

 

You know, sometimes I wonder what game designers were thinking when I see crap like Shadow the Hedgehog. It seems like everything added to Sonic since his heyday has been for the worse. What the series needs is a back to basics 2d side scrollng (perhaps even with first person view to accentuate the sense of speed?) with some intricate, imaginitive 3d graphics, lots of oversatuarated colour (evoke some retro), a good sense of speed, Sonic, Tails and Dr Robotnik. That's it.

 

Shadow the Hedgehog was Sega's best selling console game last year. That is all I wanted to say.

 

Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't that bad, but the gun elements were totally out of place.

Edit: oh, and the plot fucking sucked.

 

Which says nothing at all unless we see the numbers

This may indicate to an even worse market performance on other SEGA games

 

Looks like my impressions were justified and my worst fears confirmed. Its a stinker:

After so many miserable Sonic games I'm officially convinced Team Sonic has lost it. Sega should hand the brand over to another developer and either disband Team Sonic, or only occupy them with "classic collections" and ports. Hold on, I guess they could screw even those up ... how can they screw up so massively over and over again?

 

I tried the 360 demo for a bit and the control of it certainly put me right off the game - I could hardly get off the first jump without dying, and just gave up in short order. The demo left a very negative impression.

 

It seems the demo made a good job of providing players with a representative sample of the (un)finished product. After the massive snore-fest and horrible PS2-likeness that was the PSU demo, Sega saved me money twice in a row with their XBL demos. Good job !

In a somewhat related topic : WTH is wrong with Sonic Team nowadays ?

 

Most of these 3D Sonic games, you have to first figure out, what the designer wants you to do at each obstacle. Once you figure that out, its pretty hard to die, even if Sonic controls like a 300mph brick.

 

What is wrong is that they aren't really Sonic Team anymore, AFAIK all of the orignal Sonic staff have left. Sonic has become a cash cow and Sega just don't seem to give the games either the time or talent that they deserve (maybe that's a bit harsh but I can't believe an experienced coding team would produce a game engine that is so sloppily executed).

To be honest I enjoy playing this game and can put aside most of its faults, but the amount of loading is an absolute disgrace. It breaks up the flow of the game and makes it feel unfinished (perhaps it is). The programmers should be shot I'm afraid.

 

I found this video of Sonic the Hedgehog on Kotaku (MASSIVE LATE-GAME SPOILERS):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPcGGHtKqyQ&eurl= (skip to 33 second mark if you're sick of seeing that guy's hand)

Watch that if you want to see Sega crap all over your childhood Sonic memories (more than they already have, I mean). It's like they actively tried to make this game as awful as possible in every way.

 

I agree, the loading is hideous, i don’t' think i have ever experienced anything so disjointed and broken as this game.

That aside the game isn't that bad.

It's not just Sonic Team dropping the ball, it's Sega all round, since the days of the Dreamcast they have become more of a cash cow (think EA), although Virtua Fighter 5 looks very nice

It''s a shame Sega disbanded Smilebit (AM6) Panzer Dragoon, JSRF and Gunvalkyrie where great games.

Not to mention i'm still waiting for closure on Shenmue ><

 

I checked the gametrailers review. Graphics are nice. Gameplay more of the same craptasticness.

 

That video was goddamnawful. I feel so unclean. That was even worse than playing FF X-2.

 

*Cough* 3d racing games have pulled off a few better sense of speed and control than 2d ones ever did *Cough*

That Sega can't make a decent high speed 3d Sonic game is not an example of the impossibility of the task, but rather a lack of talent or ideas. If they want a fast game with a 'loose' feel, all they have to do is copy F-Zero or Wipeout and replace the car with Sonic.

 

Which, incidentally, seems to be what Sonic Wii is all about.

 

This new Sonic has the right idea, I think. Almost the way it should be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ2bWpmucYM

 

That seems to lack as well. Its motly running on one side of the screen, and there isnt much use of Sonic's rolling like a ball

 

IMO, the first thing I think they should ditch is the mutiple characters. Bring the focus back on Sonic (and co op wise, Tail and Knuckles). My second suggestion I'm not so sure off as I'm trying to decide how they would implement it but I osmehow they should make it one big world, kind of like GTA but obivously more enclosed and with the sonic feel to it.

 

They should add on the open enviroment lots of parts with rails as well that will give the opportunity for Sonic to accumulate speed without fearing of cliffs and obstacles.

Sonic Adventure is still the best 3D sonic because it offered lots of opportunities to speed on rails and HUGE loops. The exploring enviroments were also open enough for you to run. It had some camera and control issues since then but instead of improving and fixing the formula the idiots made some of the issues worse, others were still kept, and they reduced low risk rails and loops. Oh and they decided to increase cliffs of doom, stupid enemies, and more obstacles than a Super Mario game. Not to mention that they TOTALLY ruinded the boss fights