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How Sega Can Save Sonic
You may recall the conversation we had at the end of last year, riffing off of a Retrogaming article on how Sega ruined Sonic. 1up has returned with a response, positing how the company can save their mascot from the death of ignominy. Their advice is simple: Go Fast, ditch Shadow, make fewer games. "Remember Blast Processing? It was a sham, sure, but the idea behind it was a perfect summation of what Sonic was about: A game so fast that the Genesis had to be specially programmed to keep up with it. Slowing down to drink in the ambiance or whatever is pretty much the exact opposite of Blast Processing. Being forced to, say, go fishing in a Sonic game is like buying a Ferrari so you can take naps in the backseat."
Just to clarify, the move toward Dr. Eggman vs. Robotnik and Earth vs. Mobius was a move toward how the Sonic story was told in its original Japanese. The elements we Americans are used to were localization and translation issues. That being said, I think we Americans liked the way Sonic was localized. Trying to cram a version better suited to Japanese culture down our throats is silly, especially since the early Sonic games supposedly sold better in the U.S. than they did in Japan.
IMHO, the Sonic Team should have used the SatAM show as its source material rather than coming up with the screwy Sonic X series. The result would have been far more appealing to the majority of American fans.
Last but not least, Sega should really consider reworking the Sonic XTreme concept. There's a lot of demand for that game out there. Enough to suggest that the direction it was going is actually where fans want to go. Yes, it was basically a straight-up translation of 2D Sonic into 3D Sonic. But what's wrong with that?
In case anyone is wondering why the article calls "Blast Processing" a sham, it's because more processing power is not necessary for Sonic's "speed". Speed is an illusion. As long as the frame rate is high enough to prevent choppiness (consoles are limited to the TV's 60 FPS anyway), you can move the playfield and characters as much or as little as you want per frame. This gives the illusion of speed. In cases where the actual speed exceeds the sampling rate of the television, motion blur tricks can be used to fool the eye further. For example, Sonic's legs weren't really a blur. The sprite was already blurred, then played back at a far lower framerate.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Nintendo did it. Konomi did it. Just make a really great platformer. Make it for the DS. Make it for 360 Live. The wii, whatever. Just make it fun.
Pull the plug already. Let him die in peace and hopefully he'll be remembered in his Genesis glory days instead of in his 3D form that never did quite work out. Not every franchise can or should last forever.
3D is the heart of the problem. In full 3D, there is just too much freedom of movement to manage the speed required for a Sonic game. I can't understand why Sega doesn't release a "3D on a 2D track" Sonic game, along the lines of Nights.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles was the pinnacle of what Sonic could be, IMO. It had the best music (thanks possibly to Michael Jackson...look it up on Wikipedia!) the best levels, and a great variety in gameplay. Frankly, They just need to make a psuedo-3D sonic game with some RPG-ish elements. The paths between various locations in the world would be a bunch of branching pathways made in the old 2D style way of level making. Just make Sonic 4 for god's sake, and undo the last 10 years of furry shit.
I was going to mod you down, but I think I'll speak some instead.
;)
The moment that Sega decided to give Sonic, et al. an actual identity, as opposed to the bland and generic Mario and crew (and let's not kid ourselves here, character details matter very little in his sphere---Nintendo focuses much more on gameplay, and justifiably so), Sega opened an inverse Pandora's box: there is all this room for derivative works outside of video games (which has been done, both commercially and fan-based), but this has alienated non-fans (the association with the furry fandom could be incidental and not causal). And, of course, the games have continued to decline in quality, which is fatal no matter what.
Sega has no clear objective for Sonic. He maintains his original product differentiation from Mario as described above, but otherwise, he's still a me-too, devoid of boldness and originality in both gameplay and storyline.
To actually address what I think you're referring to: yeah, I hate the humans too. If they're going to keep inventing characters to the point where they actually make Sonic non-asexual, nobody wanted to see him kiss some dainty-ass innocent human girl.
Crap, I need to cut off my rant now. I'll be resuming it later.